https://youtu.be/7q6Co-nd0lM Directed by David Dobkin Written by Will Ferrel & Andrew Steele ★★★ With 2020 cascading a series of cancellations on major cultural events, none have hit fans as hard than the postponement of The Eurovision Song Contest. Starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams, David Dobkin’s musical comedy Eurovision Song Contest: Story of Fire Saga has hit Netflix, and while it’ll scratch … Continue reading Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga – Netflix
https://youtu.be/reyy9ASpMSc Directed by Justin Pemberton Based on the book by Thomas Piketty New Zealand/ 2019/ 103 mins ★★★★ We’re halfway through 2020, a peculiar pandemic year which hosts a variety of elections, consequences, narcissistic reaches, and exposure of the toxic systems in place in a way which bathes inequalities – particularly economic – in a … Continue reading Capital in the Twenty-First Century
https://youtu.be/aXc9DVfLTGo Written by Mari Okada Directed by Jun'ichi Satô & Tomotaka Shibayama Japan / 2020 / 104 mins ★★★★ leeping all day, prowling all night – the life of a cat seems a pretty sweet gig, right? No responsibilities, no commitments and all the glasses you can knock off the table. For Miyo Saski, being … Continue reading A Whisker Away – Netflix
https://youtu.be/ChksJ8AL9Lk Directed by Marc Meyers USA/ 2019/ 91 mins ★★ Satanists get a bit of a bad reputation, don’t they? Whether it’s John Carpenter’s hideously underappreciated Prince of Darkness, or the more recent The Blackcoat’s Daughter, the blurring of humanity and its association with the Devil is as ancient a narrative tool as possible. Then there were … Continue reading We Summon the Darkness – Review
https://youtu.be/HnG4ag3Nkes Based on the book by Lois Lowry Written by Kris Pearn & Mark Stanleigh Directed by Kris Pearn, Cory Evans & Rob Lodermeier ★★★★ At one point or another, we’ve all fallen out with our folks, maybe to the extent we wish we had been adopted but hopefully not to the extreme where we … Continue reading The Willoughbys – Netflix
Written & Directed by Alexander Black ★★★ The world isn’t black and white, nor is it a true ‘grey area’. More often than not, in the world of crime and abuse, there’s regularly a slash of crimson added into the mix. People don’t always agree that the punishment fits the crime, especially when it involves … Continue reading Lycanthropy – Short Film Review
https://youtu.be/L6P3nI6VnlY Directed by Sam Hargrave Screenplay by Joe Russo ★★★ Hiring an unsavoury sort of chap to secure to the safety of a loved one has seemingly grown into its own genre these days, hasn’t it? From director and stunt-coordinator Sam Hargrave, Netflix is looking to secure viewership with the draw of high-stakes action, visuals and … Continue reading Extraction – Netflix
https://youtu.be/OEgysK5W5bI Written & Directed by Neasa Hardiman Ireland / 2020 / 89 mins ★★★ The sub-genre of ecological horror usually finds itself graced by the ‘marvels’ of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening or Cody Duckworth’s Harbinger. These narratives regularly push the ethos of ‘mankind bad – nature good’, with limited tact or subtlety, when, with reworkings and deft narratives, the films’ intentions … Continue reading Sea Fever – Review
"Little Angel Theatre spins wood, plastic and string into storytelling gold"
https://youtu.be/tukMRXkjhlM Written & Directed by Nicolas Bedos Westworld, but closer to reality, La Belle Époque places the addictive nature of nostalgia at the forefront of its narrative. Posing that this re-enactment of the past has its benefits, but it’s drug-like properties are far from a healthy escape, that the past is pleasurable but has capabilities of crippling … Continue reading La Belle Époque – Edinburgh Filmhouse
