Movies

  There is a great deal to like about the recently-released Dawn of the Planet of the Apes which defied the usual trend of sequels by being every bit the equal of its predecessor Rise of the Planet of the Apes. One of the aspects of the movie that most Continue Reading

  SNAPSHOT A soldier (Richard Glover) is awoken from stasis to find the world completely destroyed. Venturing into the wasteland he is faced with the devastating loneliness of being the last man alive. (synopsis via UK Horror Scene) For a guy as upbeat and doggedly optimistic as myself, I sure Continue Reading

  Sex Tape, directed by Jake Kasdan (Bad Teacher, New Girl), is a small “c” comedy with big “C” comedy aspirations it never quite realises. With a script by the same scriptwriters (plus one, Kate Angelo) who, oddly enough, brought us 2011’s sublimely wonderful The Muppet Movie, star Jason Segel and Continue Reading

  In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Lysander remarks with considerable insight that “the course of true love never did run smooth”, a recognition that the meeting of two hearts, the coming together of what Plato called the twin yearning halves of the one soul, while glorious and overflowing with Continue Reading

  The tightly circumscribed world of John May (beautifully played with a gentle intensity by Eddie Marsan) is a grey, well-ordered and wholly predictable one in Uberto’s Pasolini’s latest film Still Life. Employed by the council in the South London district of Kennington for 22 years to track down the often-ambivalent, Continue Reading

  Being both a blockbuster and a sequel should have, by the usual standards of slapdash Hollywood out to make a quick buck, left Dawn of the Planet of the Apes a doubly-cursed, slathering mess of incoherent plotting, poorly-expressed ideas and sub-standard acting. And yet, thanks to a nuanced, well-paced Continue Reading

  There is an arresting poetic beauty and authenticity to Charlie’s Country, Rolf de Heer’s latest feature film with legendary actor David Gulpilil, that is starkly evident from the silent second to opening shot of the movie in which an introspective Charlie sits in his humpy, lost in mumbling introspection, Continue Reading

SNAPSHOT An atmospheric ghost story with truths to tell about friendship, families and loneliness. Anna lives with foster parents, a misfit with no friends, always on the outside of things. Then she is sent to Norfolk to stay with old Mr and Mrs Pegg, where she runs wild on the Continue Reading

  Films that set out to tackle the big issues of life such as death, revenge, sexual abuse, estrangement, love and salvation to name but a handful, often tread a thankless and perilous path. They either run the risk of coming across as insufferably pretentious, too far above the day Continue Reading