by on

With  I Am Mother  Debut Writer and Director Grant Sputore’s Sci Fi offering tackles big ideas with a small budget.  Set in a post-apocalyptic ‘re-population’ facility, a teenage girl is raised by a robot “mother” until a stranger interrupts their unique bond. In the tradition of Ex Machina (2014)  and  10 Cloverfield Lane (2016),  I Am Mother (2019)  narrows the scope of […]

by on

The rise of ‘Buddy Horror’ There is a sub-genre of Horror which IMDB calls “Alien Infiltration” and a cursory keyword search of ‘the database’ suggests it is a potentially rich yet largely untapped theme.  Notable entrants include Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)  and its various remakes as well as the much loved yet now quite dated John […]

by on

When her younger brother is finally released from a psychiatric facility years after his conviction for the murder of their parents, a woman seeks to prove the existence of the malignant and supernatural force she believes actually responsible. Conveniently, the locale of said force is a mirror and therefore easily transportable back to the family home-come-erstwhile […]

by on

In the hit and miss genre of anthology television, Black Mirror has always stood out as being more hit than miss.  While the same could be said for the latest trio of offerings, one episode in particular is easily the weakest to date. Black Mirror has always been at its best as an exploration of well-drawn […]

by on

Adapted from the graphic novel “The Coldest City” and helmed by one-time Stuntman David Leitch, Atomic Blonde (2017)  sends Charlize Theron’s Badass MI6 agent to Berlin to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents.   Set against the backdrop of the fall of the Berlin Wall the soviet-era spy plot […]

by on

Manchester By The Sea is a naturalistic, character-driven Drama which punches you in the guts and leaves you breathless.  It’s a film which hinges on its trust in a lean cast to deliver complex emotions with minimal dialogue and for the most part it delivers. In a film which conveys so much with so little exposition, […]

by on

Unicorn Store (2017) is an oddity even among oddball comedies.  Sitting somewhere between corporate satire and a coming of age comedy, the story centres on Brie Larson’s child-like character and her (very late) journey into adulthood. Working behind the camera for the first time, Brie Larson conjures strong comedic performances from her Cast.  Funnily enough however, her […]

by on

With  American Animals  (2018), writer / director Bart Layton deploys techniques he introduced in his excellent documentary  The Imposter (2012) to create a biopic like no other, one that’s actually entertaining. The true-crime story itself is interesting – 4 college boys who devise a plan to steal and sell priceless books from a college library – yet in […]

by on

The Highwaymen, in which a pair of Texas Rangers come out of retirement to catch the infamous outlaws Bonnie and Clyde is not your typical buddy cop movie.  Nor is it your standard Bonnie & Clyde fare. In fact, there’s a sense the film doesn’t quite know what it is. It is at its best when it is essentially […]