A merciless exploration of rage, shame, paralysis and bitterness, Tyrannosaur would be nigh on impossible to watch if it wasn’t also absolutely hypnotic. Staggering central performances from Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman add powerful weight to a sparse, unpretentious script – a debut piece for writer/director Paddy Considine. Enjoyable might be the wrong word, but this is vital viewing all the same.
Director Rafi Pitts chose himself as lead in a very biased bit of casting for The Hunter. Too bad it didn’t pay off, as his taciturn presence makes the potentially tense cat and mouse narrative drag.
For a film about the re-writing a political memoir, it’s rather ironic that the screenplay for Roman Polanski’s thriller should be one of its weaknesses. Characters are not fully formed in a script co-written by Polanski and Robert Harris, adapting his novel of the same name. Indeed, they are ciphers in a clunky and contrived plot that builds to a big reveal, which would be risible in less accomplished hands.
In American Football – the opening credits of The Blind Side inform us – the highest paid player is the Quarterback. The second highest player is the Left Tackle – as the first bill you pay might be the mortgage, but the second is always the insurance. Now for anyone not American (a spectrum that very much includes us), this poignant opening message is kind of lost. But what emerges in the preceding film is an uplifting true story that emphasizes a message of the importance of protection, loyalty and trust. Which we’re pretty sure is what the Left Tackle thing is about. Yeah, we totally speak Football!
Kick-down, touch-up and homoerotic falling down!
Sad boy meets sad girl. Said sad boy and sad girl inevitably fall in love. Whilst it would be easy to summarise Remember Me as such, it would be crude to reduce R Patz’ latest venture to such terms. Remember Me is a dark, brooding, and occasionally heart-wrenching affair (yes, really), but unfortunately this new Robert Pattinson film fails to reach its potential.
How do you tell a tale about the grisly rape and murder of a 14 year-old girl, whilst making sure it can be released a PG? By getting rid of that pesky rape and muder part, of course! Peter Jackson’s take on Alice Sebold’s novel is certainly beautiful to look at, but it has to be asked, is that really the point?
Director Clint Eastwood has done it again with Invictus, a wonderfully uplifting film that follows the true story of Nelson Mandela’s quest to reuinte his fractured country through the peaceful bonds of of giant men bashing into each other.
This Sunday, Colin Firth was awarded the Best Actor Bafta for A Single Man in a blaze of long overdue glory. Though he didn’t manage to clinch the Oscar, based on the performance his gives in this stunning, subtle, and achingly lovely film we reckon he deserved it.
After the mammoth critical and commercial success of No Country For Old Men, it was perhaps inevitable Hollywood would turn to Cormac McCarthy’s next book and hope the success can be repeated. But brothers Joen and Ethan Coen, who produced and directed No Country, are very special filmmakers indeed. Could The Proposition director John Hillcoat turn McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Road into another multi-Oscar winner?
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