Beautiful Beings

 

Following up on his 2016 feature film debut, Heartstone, writer and director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson returns with Beautiful Beings, a story about boyhood and friendship, tilting on the edge of destruction and ultimately a vicious act of revenge. 

After being hospitalised from bullies at school, lonely Balli is tentatively befriended by the understanding Addi, the sarcastic Siggi and the short-tempered Konni. Together they carve out an existence, trying to have fun and escaping their home lives. But after Konni’s temper gets the group into trouble with older and more violent people and with the return of Balli’s abusive stepfather, the boys have to decide if revenge and retaliation is really the way to live.

Full review over at Filmhounds HERE.

Holy Spider

 
Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider caused a stir when it premiered at Cannes 2022, especially being nominated for the Palm d’Or and Zar Amir Ebrahimi winning Best Actress. But the story itself was the main reason the film caught the audiences’ attention. Based on real events surrounding the serial killer Saeed Hanaei who murdered 16 women from 2000 to 2001 in Mashhad, Iran.

Full review over at Filmhounds HERE.

Watch List 2022

 

Another year, another film watch list and unfortunately, some of the restrictions I faced last year only came back again. But due to the job I started at the end of last year, I was even more restricted and missed out on so many films and festivals and opportunities in general.

Reminding me loosely of Smokin' Aces, where all these assassins descend on a location, in this case, a bullet train where there is far more going on than what is assumed, leaving absolutely everyone with only a segment of the truth. It's bloody, highly amusing, great characters and it never stops. 

A murder mystery with dark comedic turns, what is not to like? Full review HERE.

Atmospheric and literally intoxicating, a Viking story, folktale with twists and turns. Full review HERE.

This could be a throwaway character study set to the background of college sports but there is something far more brilliantly observed here. Deserved far more attention than it got. Full review HERE.

I would say this was better than the first Benoit Blanc case. Review HERE.

Said to be the film to watch if you’re heading into your 30s or at the start and that was pretty much spot on. Don’t let the length of the film put you off. Even if the story isn’t exactly how you’re feeling, the essence of what is happening will definitely be something you can connect too.

There is far more to say about the film. Tax and donuts aside, this is an amazing science fiction romance, mother-daughter drama that is so hard to define, which is probably why its winning people over. It’s a beautifully heart-breaking, yet so simple at the centre.

Going back to the gritty roots of who Batman is or was. More like a crime story that is every bit the detective story. Full review HERE.

This film has some fanfare at the start but soon was forgotten from people’s radar which is a real shame. Wannabe porn star from Sweden tries to make it in the business, make or literally break. Fantastic central performance and showing all side of an industry surrounded by controversy.

Director Paul Verhoeven has done it again, taken a story and gently shoved it in our faces. Based on a real person, this very much feels like the beginning of that story. Full review HERE.

Interview with Screenwriters Pen Densham and John Watson

 

As the 90s is the current era we are all nostalgic for, it seems only right that we take a look back at the second highest grossing film of 1991, Kevin Costner starring Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Despite there being two other versions of the legendary noble who robbed from the rich to give to the poor, the 90s classic will be remembered and celebrated for far longer. But before there fights in the forest, Bryan Adams’ theme song and Alan Rickman delivering some of the best lines of his career as the Sheriff of Nottingham, there were Pen Densham and John Watson who write the now classic Robin Hood film. We talked with Densham and Watson about how the script came into being, the hero’s journey, balancing humour and drama and who came up with the famous spoon line.

Full interview over at Filmhounds HERE.

Glass Onion

 

Benoit Blanc returns! This time we find him bored in need of a new case in the middle of lockdown. But luckily, with the arrival of a mysterious puzzle box, a new mystery is close at hand. 

This time around, Blanc becomes entangled with another group of wealthy individuals. They are influential, powerful, and somewhat talented friends who call themselves, ‘The Disruptors’. The dynamics of the friendships are like those of a family. There are secrets and lies that bind them and can have the ability to, disrupt, the group, potentially ruining everything they have ever accomplished. Blanc goes along for the ride as there is far more to this island getaway and old friends catching up that meets the eye.

Full post and Filmhounds Top 10 of 2022 HERE.