By Freda Cooper So that was 2017, the year when horror became the genre of choice and broke a few boundaries into the bargain. When every month had at least one blockbuster, or a superhero movie – or both. When some superheroes weren’t exactly super. And when fan backlashes became the norm, from La La Land to The Last Jedi. But, most importantly of all, people still kept going to…
Read MoreFilm Review: The Greatest Showman
Reviewed by Matthew Turner The trailer for The Greatest Showman goes out of its way to convince you that it’s not a musical, and that it is, in fact, an uplifting let’s-do-the-show-right-here biopic of 19th century circus impresario P.T. Barnum. However, a musical it most emphatically is, while its biographical details have received something of a revisionist tweak. The feature debut of Australian director Michael Gracey (who has a background…
Read MoreFilm Review: Song of Granite
Reviewed by Ian McMillan So. Slow-paced, black-and-white, atmospheric films are not exactly my go-to thing for a weekend evening, but I’m a sucker for anything in the Irish language, and the trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBbfPpWPuoE) for Song of Granite, despite the English-language title, was just chock full of lovely natural Irish and I couldn’t resist.
Read MoreThe 10 Best TV Shows of 2017
Rachael Kaines picks her favourite TV shows of 2017. Do you agree? We have been blessed by yet another great year for television, with the golden age showing no signs of ending or even slowing down. Deciding a top ten is very difficult this year, it could have easily included things like Catastrophe, Big Little Lies, Game of Thrones, Easy (why is no one talking about this show?), and, of…
Read MoreFilm Review: Pitch Perfect 3
Back for another dose of a capella shenanigans, Pitch Perfect 3 makes its way onto our screen this week, but is it any good? Matthew Turner gives us his verdict. The original Pitch Perfect was a charming and very funny hit in 2012, but it blotted its copybook with a dismal follow-up in 2015 that failed to hit any of the right notes. Unfortunately, this third and supposedly final entry in…
Read MoreThe Best Christmas Films You Will Re-Watch Yet Again This Christmas
Complied by Rachael Kaines Christmas is a time of joy, and in honour of that so is this list. Filled with the films that you will quite happily watch for the ninth time (even though you insist it’s crap) after a cheese course large enough to down an elephant, whilst sipping slow gin and fluctuating between contentedness and intense nausea. These movies as much a part of Christmas as turkey…
Read MoreBest Films Of 2017 By Sigridur Petursdottir
Icelandic film journalist and screenwriter Sigridur Petursdottir picks her favourite films of 2017. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Martin McDonagh Frances McDormand has been one of my favourite actresses for a long time. In this movie, she gives it her all. Mildred is funny, tragic, dangerous, sensitive, clever, hurt, but also crazy. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a brilliant film. It’s well written, it makes you laugh, and it…
Read MoreBest Films of 2017 By Louis Bayman
Writer and lecturer Louis Bayman picks his favourite films of the year for Screenwords. 1-Lady MacBeth (Dir: William Oldroyd) 2-T2 Trainspotting (Dir: Danny Boyle) 3-Mudbound (Dir: Dee Rees)
Read MoreFilm Review: Bingo: The King of Mornings
Reviewed by Lee Hill “My makeup is dry and it cracks round my chin / I’m drowning my sorrows in whiskey and gin,” The Kinks sang on their 1967 hit single, The Death of a Clown, and that in many ways sums up the theme of Bingo: The King of Mornings. Audiences love a tale of the clown that cries on the inside. Bingo is the slickly executed directorial debut…
Read MoreInterview: Screenwords meets Daniel Rezende
Interview by Rachael Kaines You may not have heard of Daniel Rezende, but there’s a good chance that you’ve seen his work. He was nominated for an Oscar, and won a BAFTA for editing 2002’s City of God, he edited other Brazilian gems such as The Motorcycle Diaries, Elite Squad and it’s sequel, City of Men (City of God’s sequel), and Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life.
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