Featuring the love of siblings, the love of zombies, and the joys of student filmmaking.

The Indiependent

My Little Sister : A-

Shaun of the Dead : A (as part of The Indiependent’s “Scarily Good Films” Halloween feature)

UK Film Review

The Gazebo with a View : D

Lions led by donkeys satire. There’s signature Kubrick in its trench tracking sequences and hermetically arranged establishing shots, and the “going over the top” set piece is far more impressive in its scope and visual effects than anything the director put together 30 years later in Full Metal Jacket. A-

In which Louis Theroux becomes a serial killer, a Syrian refugee becomes an art exhibit, and I become very bored watching a soldier stare at trees.

The Indiependent

The Man Who Sold His Skin : A-

Natural Light : C-

Ride the Eagle : C+

UK Film Review

When the Screaming Starts : D+

Featured this week: Animal Crossing as a revenge thriller, photo journalism as a historical subject, and something meta as something stupid.

The Indiependent

Picture Stories : B

UK Film Review

Fuelled (short film) : B+

Random Acts of Violence : C

It gave the internet memes, and the internet gave it a grossly inflated estimation of its worth. Being the best Star Wars prequel is rather like being the best Trump sibling—an a priori indictment.

C

In which John David Washington is chased around the streets of my life, Timothy Spall is bussed across the streets of my country, and Charis Beth Swartley fights family drama in a short film with no streets, thus ruining my triptych.

The Indiependent

Beckett : B+

The Last Bus : B

UK Film Review

A Good Home (short film) : B

Spielberg is constantly manipulating the screen with his use of lighting and camera angles to spin mundane scenes into something interesting, and it’s a constant pleasure to watch. Tom Hanks is as ever, ever-dependable, getting a lot of joy out of the fish-out-of-water who finds he’s surprisingly good at sleuthing. Its Mark Rylance though who delivers the best performance—upstanding, understated, and utterly unflustered—as rumbled Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. Conversely, the legalistic story about Abel’s prisoner exchange with U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers lacks a certain spark. Even if the mawkish epilogue you always fear is coming with Spielberg had been discarded, the run-time would still be overextended, and there’s never quite enough drama to spice up its talky formality. It’s eminently watchable though—another solid entry in the director’s sizeable biographical line.

B+

Another batch of reviews from the last couple of weeks:

The Indiependent

The Nest : B

Vivo : B-

UK Film Review

Underground (French: Souterrain) : B+

What The… (short film) : B-

Running out of ideas on round four, Sylvester Stallone gives up on filmmaking to create a series of sweaty training montages set to ‘80s AOR. And to be fair to him, this is the best series of sweaty training montages set to ‘80s AOR you’re ever likely to see, drenched in unintentional camp and buttressed by characters I’ll continue to like even if the set-up has grown stale. Also contains a gloriously kitsch cameo by the Godfather of Soul.

B-

Over the last couple of months, film reviews have been littered across the internet as if by some kind of manic cyberspace litter bug. Here they are all in one place.

Grades displayed below won’t necessarily match those on the sites, which use their own rating systems (or none at all), so there can be some approximating involved. This is simply my translation of those scores using my own.

Battle Royale With Cheese

Dr. Bird’s Advice For Sad Poets : C+

Martin Eden : C+

The Indiependent

French Exit : B-

Old : C+

The Reason I Jump : B

The Suicide Squad : B

UK Film Review

2088 (short film) : C+

Petrichor (short film) : B+

True Calling : D