It is hard to believe this story is real. Those of you who might be sent running in the other direction by a film about racing may want to reconsider your previous inclinations. Set in the 1970s, the film exploits our natural tendency to white-wash the past. The beauty of Rush lies in its delicate Read More
It has been 17 years since Danny Boyle’s inspired adaption of Irvine Welsh’s novel Trainspotting took British cinema by storm, becoming a cult hit which inspired a new age of British film making under the banner of “Cool Britannia”. Subsequent adaptations of Welsh’s work have struggled by comparison, with Ecstasy and The Acid House representing Read More
After recent excursions to some of Europe’s most iconic cities, prolific filmmaker Woody Allen returns to the United States with his latest film. Blue Jasmine (2013), the 43rd feature directed by Allen, is a loose and contemporary retelling of Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize winning play A Streetcar Named Desire (1947). The movie centres on the Read More
The Way, Way Back is an absolutely brilliant film which is funny, moving, uplifting and features a great cast. The film focuses on the difficulties faced by Duncan, a 14 year old boy (Liam James), on summer holiday as he tries to deal with puberty, girls and his new post-divorce family dynamic. His father doesn’t Read More
During the live Q and A which followed this documentary on Professor Stephen Hawking’s life, director Stephen Finnigan described the titular cosmologist in three words: ‘inspiring, determined and funny.’ Finnigan’s documentary achieves such an insight into the life and mind of the world’s most famous contemporary scientist, giving a view of the man not always Read More
The Great Hip Hop Hoax, directed by Jeanie Finlay, charts the rise and fall of Scottish rappers Billy Boyd and Gavin Bain who created alternate personalities in an audacious bid to get the attention of the record industry and receive the exposure they felt they deserved. The two met on the Dundee skate scene in Read More
NoViolet Bulawayo’s debut novel, We Need New Names, integrates all the archetypal elements which readers come to expect of a “typical” African novel; poverty, rape, Aids, religious fanaticism, political violence and the struggle for independence. Yet, as a whole, it does not fufill those expectations. Bulawayo tells the story of a devastated nation. This is Read More
If you feel like watching Kick Ass 2, make sure you don’t do it for the dialogue. Like the first Kick Ass film directed by Matthew Vaughan, this sequel is ultra-violent and extremely fast paced; however, unlike its predecessor, this movie induces incredulity rather than providing the shock factor which had made the first film Read More
Silence is an intriguing film placed somewhere between documentary and fiction. The debut feature of filmmaker Pat Collins can most accurately be described as film art and may, therefore, not be to everyone’s taste. Collins has opted to create a calm, meditative film that coolly unfolds as its protagonist and audience are forced to reflect Read More
Collaborative film direction can be a tricky proposition, which often results in a disjointed final product – a movie which appears to be the sum of two distinct parts rather than a coherent whole. However, when done expertly, such an approach can be beneficial to the final result; as the saying goes “Two heads are Read More