Mission: Impossible – Fallout Directed by Christopher McQuarrie. Produced by J.J. Abrams and Tom Cruise. Featuring Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Cavill, Simon Pegg, Michelle Monaghan, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, Vanessa Kirby and Alec Baldwin. The Mission Impossible series has become impossible. Impossible to comprehend. Impossible to keep up with. Impossible to reason with. Impossible … Continue reading The Two Reviews: Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018 Christopher McQuarrie)
If you happened to miss the films A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (released in 2014 and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour) and Under the Shadow (released in 2016 and directed by Babak Anvari), get thee a copy of both immediately and watch them. They are, by my determination at least, two of the … Continue reading Shadows of the Night: Two Progressive Iranian-based Films in the Western Mainstream
On Chesil Beach (2018, Number 9 Films, BBC Films & Lionsgate) Directed by Dominic Cooke, based on a novel by Ian McEwan, featuring Saoirse Ronan, Billy Howle, Emily Watson, Ann-Marie Duff and Samuel West. The film On Chesil Beach is a romantic drama based on the short novel of the same name by Ian McEwan. It is … Continue reading The Two Reviews: On Chesil Beach and BlacKkKlansman
Foreword by Robin Stevens Akira Kurosawa (黒沢 明 1910 – 1998) was a master of film craft, and one of the greatest directors of all time. He grew up in Tokyo, watching silent films from around the world and going to see traditional and modern Japanese theatre. He became a painter, and in his 20s … Continue reading Akira Kurosawa – A Master of Film Part 3: Dersu Uzala and the Russian Wilderness
Did you know there is going to be a sequel to Braveheart (1995)? I know! If ever there was a movie which needed a sequel. So many questions were left unanswered. Did Scotland’s nobles universally accept Robert Bruce? How did the writing of the ‘Declaration of Arbroath’ effect the legal position of the Scottish royal … Continue reading Dramatis Scocie – The Effective Use of the Scottish Landscape in Film
Lean on Pete (2017, A24, Curzon Artifical Eye, BFI and Film4) Directed by Andrew Haigh, based on a novel by Willy Vlautin, featuring Charlie Plummer, Chloë Sevigny, Travis Fimmel, Steve Zahn and Steve Buscemi Andrew Haigh has beautifully adapted Willy Vlautin’s brilliant and understated novel for the screen. Having read the book when it was … Continue reading The Two Reviews: Lean on Pete and Disobedience
As the book The Silence of the Lambs (1988) begins Jack Crawford is already hunting a serial killer nicknamed “Buffalo Bill”. He is short of personnel and resources and he is without his former protégé, Will Graham. He is also dealing with the increasing ill health of his wife as she struggles with cancer. If … Continue reading Hunting the Cannibal: The Heroes of Thomas Harris, Part 2 – Clarice Starling
Thomas Harris has created some chilling and hideously memorable characters. Of course, everyone remembers Hannibal Lecter (or ‘Lecktor’ in some versions of the character). This is not surprising. After all, everyone remembers Dracula and the Wolfman but few can enthusiastically list all the brave men and women who hunted the monsters. What are the serial … Continue reading Hunting the Cannibal: The Heroes of Thomas Harris, Part 1 – Will Graham
Akira Kurosawa (黒沢 明 1910 – 1998) was a master of film craft, and one of the greatest directors of all time. He grew up in Tokyo, watching silent films from around the world and going to see traditional and modern Japanese theatre. He became a painter, and in his 20s got into script writing, editing and … Continue reading Akira Kurosawa – A Master of Film Part 2: The Humanity of the Seven Samurai
Hereditary (2018 Paramount Pictures) Directed by Ari Aster; Featuring Toni Collette, Alex Wolf, Milly Shapiro & Gabriel Byrne '...a bottle of vodka and a pillow...' This is a cliché-heavy, B-grade, supernatural horror film, which is actually more funny than scary. But it is mostly boring. How did the writer/director ever convince some decent actors (Collette … Continue reading The Two Reviews: Hereditary (2018 Ari Aster)
Momentary Cinema 