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 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 MoreFilm Review: Mountains May Depart
Reviewed by Rachael Kaines Mountains May Depart is the latest film from Chinese writer and director Jia Zhang-ke. The film offers an insightful and measured look at the effects of globalisation, as well as a meditation on the current and future state of diaspora and the dissolving of culture. Mountains May Depart is a movie split into three parts: the nostalgic and hopeful past of 1999, the unpleasant present of…
Read MoreFilm Review: Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle
Reviewed by Freda Cooper The word Jumanji immediately conjures up misty eyed memories of the 1995 family comedy starring Robin Williams and a young Kirsten Dunst. With a magical board game at its heart, it boasted some special effects that weren’t just impressive for their day, they also stand up surprisingly well now. 22 years later, we have an updated version for today’s generation, in theory a standalone, but who…
Read MoreFilm Review: Brigsby Bear
Reviewed By Freda Cooper If you ever obsessed over a TV series as a kid, then you’ll have more than a little sympathy for James (Kyle Mooney) in Brigsby Bear. He’s grown up with Brigsby Bear Adventures, a weekly show about a loveable teddy in outer space, part fun, part education. He knows every plot line down to the minutest detail, can recite chunks of dialogue and his bedroom is…
Read MoreFilm Review: The Dinner
Reviewed By Rachael Kaines The Dinner is a drama set, unsurprising, around a dinner. Written and directed by Oren Moverman, the film follows Paul Lohman (Steve Coogan) and his wife Claire (Laura Linney) as they have dinner with Paul’s brother Stan (Richard Gere) a U.S. Senator and his wife Katelyn (Rebecca Hall). The couples discuss what to do about their children, who have put themselves in a bad situation.
Read MoreFilm Review: The Disaster Artist
Reviewed by Rachael Kaines James Franco, (much like Tommy Wiseau the man he plays), directs, produces, and stars in The Disaster Artist, easily his finest film to date. Based on a book by Greg Sestero about the nightmare experience of making a horrendous movie called The Room, and the extremely strange experience of being friends with the writer, director, producer, and star, Tommy Wiseau.
Read MoreFilm Review: The Man Who Invented Christmas
Reviewed By Linda Marric It’s fair to say that despite his popularity amongst TV viewers on both sides of the Atlantic, Dan Stevens has found it hard to make a full transition from his high profile TV role in Downton Abbey into the film world. However, with his latest roles in the brilliantly understated Marshall and now playing a young Charles Dickens in the charming yet flawed The Man Who…
Read MoreFilm Review: Lu Over The Wall
Reviewed By Rachael Kaines Lu Over The Wall is a strange and enchanting new anime film from Masaaki Yuasa. Prepare to be swept away by this enchanting animation, into a world where songs, dance, and biting merpeople overcome prejudice in a rural Japanese fishing town.
Read MoreFilm Review: Happy End
Reviewed by Lee Hill Earlier this year, Michael Haneke lost out on a possible third Palme D’Or for his latest film, Happy End. In the hothouse and often clubby critical atmosphere of the festival, some commentators dismissed the film as a “greatest hits” package. The big prize was won by Ruben Östlund for The Square, a younger director who shares Haneke’s preoccupations with modern anxiety, the shaky moral and intellectual…
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