The Other Lamb

 

Missed at LFF last year, this story about a cult group that lives in the woods under the control guidance from a man named Shepard, his followers colour coded by their position, wife or daughter, is filled with dark visions making this film stand on the edge of becoming a horror, supernatural and low key thriller. Another hit on Mubi's hands.

Full review can be read HERE over at Filmhounds.

Wolfwalkers - BFI London Film Festival

 

Magic, folklore and an unlikely friendship all wrapped up in a beyond beautiful animated splendor from Irish animation house Cartoon Saloon. I cannot express how much I loved this film, every frame is pure delight and it was just so refreshing to see a film about friendship and something other than a fairytale. Folklore is so rich with stories, there is so much to explore.

My full review can be read HERE over at Filmhounds.

Kajillionaire - BFI London Film Festival

 

A con artist, scam, family drama with a personal journey all wrapped up in a Miranda July package, we've all been waiting patiently for her next film and it was worth the wait.

Full review over at Filmhounds HERE.

Eyes of Laura Mars

Last year I first set my eyes on Laura Mars' eyes at Cinema Rediscovered and I absolutely loved it. Its taken a while to write about the film but what better time that the season where everyone writes/talks about their favourite horror films. 

Part of Filmhounds' 31 days of Horror to celebrate Halloween, I contributed one of my favourites, which can be read HERE in full.

Now slam on that Barbara Streisand singing 'Prisoner', get your best 70s fashion on and your camera on standby as we see through the eyes of Laura Mars.

Watch List: August & September

Apartment 1BR

Full review can be read HERE. 3/5 

 

The Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day 

The first film is a cult classic and is just such a brilliant film, how do you top that? Well, you make a sequel that makes nearly no sense whatsoever and you bring back familiar faces and replace Willem Dafoe because he was most likely busy. This time, a hitman is hired by the mafia to murder a priest to bring the Saints back to Boston so they can have revenge BUT of course when The Saints arrive, with new pal Romeo as their sidekick, things do not go according to plan. There are moments of hilarity and ridiculous scenarios as well as amsuing details such as the emphasis on the hitman's height but this is the world of The Saints here so you have to expect the weird stuff. 3/5

 

Room

The harrowing story of a woman kept captive for years in a shed with the only positive part of her life, her young son is a film I didn't run to see at the cinema. Mainly because of the story and the real-life story that inspired it. Brie Larson is brilliant in the film as is the breakout star Jacob Tremblay as Jack, their bond and chemistry is the obviously the heart and soul of the film. Seeing the story unfold through Jack's eyes brings a new perspective on this type of story and I can see why there was so much hype around the film when it was first released. Waiting all this time to see it, I don't think took anything away, but the kidnapping and the strain everything put upon Larson's Ma is so painful to watch. Jack has his life ahead of him but Ma will be forever scarred and forever in pain and fear, even with time and I can't let that go. 4/5

 

12 Monkeys

 After years of this film sitting in my ‘to watch’ pile (in my mind) I finally got the film I had heard so much about. A science fiction thriller from Terry Gilliam, when he was making great films, is hard to resist. Of course, this is a film that resonates now more than ever, revolving round a disease that was spread in 1996 driving what remained of the human race underground. Future man Bruce Willis is time travelled back in time to find out who is responsible for the virus getting out and, in that time, makes friends with crazy Brad Pitt and scientist Madelaine Stowe with fixed effects. It’s a pretty damn good film despite making me feel uneasy in the state we all find ourselves in. 3/5

Tenet

I went to support the film that was meant to welcome people back to cinemas and I still stand by this, but, this film, was not a masterpiece. Nolan has some great ideas but how executes them is with varying success. Inception was about dreams and our perception of reality, here he cross the time travel line but it isn’t really a time travel story, it’s about time inverted….WHAT?! Starting with a fantastic opening scene pumped full of adrenalin but then quickly morphed into a sequence of fast dialogue heavy scenes that do not set up the story and does not explain anything. Literally, nothing. The only hint, a drawing but that is actually pointless too. There were too many scenes you can’t hear dialogue whether that was part of it all or not. Granted, there are some fantastic visuals but the overall reason for why things are happening is just, weak. There were also quite a few plot holes which I felt were set up in a film set before this one which we will never get to see. 2/5

Beanpole

 Full review can be read HERE. 4/5

 

Schemers

 Full review can be read HERE. 2/5

 

Night School

 I usually avoid Kevin Hart vehicles but this has Tiffany Haddish in it so I needed to see it. A fun silly comedy about a guy who struggled with school loses his job and can’t get another without a GED so he goes to night school to get one, meets group of kooky characters each with their own personalities and stories, hides his schooling from his successful girlfriend, is taught by the brilliant Haddish and has to overcome an old rivalry with a guy who knew in and now is the principle of their old high school. It’s all fun and games and dramatically plays down the fact that his character has learning difficulties that had gone unnoticed by his teachers when he was at school, but I suppose that would have been a whole other film with less laughs. 3/5

The Babysitter: Killer Queen

I have a habit of seeing sequels first but with this Netflix film, I didn’t think I needed to see the first film, but now I’ve seen this, I will go back to the start. As far as horror comedies go, this was very fun, ridiculous and I could immediately get into it despite everything that was going on. Picking up a few years later and Cole, still traumatised and trying to move on from the last film’s events decides it’s a great idea to go with his ‘best friend’ knock off blonde from next door and her friends to a lake. Of course, things go very wrong when the ghosts of the cult rise up and try and kill him again. There are flashbacks to how and why everyone joined the cult that are very amusing and silly as well as a very excellent dance scene in place of a sex scene that is better left watched and unspoiled. Cole also has a buddy along for the night of terrors, the equally mysterious and traumatised Phoebe which means our troubled boy has someone to share his story with. 3/5

 

Scottish Mussel

A wholesome British rom-com that is both impossibly sweet, slightly predictable and something rare all at the same time. Directed (and starring) Talulah Riley, her debut as the former is what you’d expect from the genre but just feels like a new voice that barely got heard. I don’t think this gem enjoyed enough if any attention at the cinema beyond the UK borders (please correct me if I’m wrong). When Ritchie and his friends end up mistaken for pearl thieves, the small-time criminal decides stealing rare Scottish pearls might be a way to make money. But after volunteering at the wild life centre to gain access prime mussel spots, he starts spending more time with Beth, the very passionate conservationist and he begins to change his mind. Unlucky for him, local gangsters have also taken an interest in the pearls too. 4/5

Tamara Drewe: 10 Year Anniversary

Finding the modern spin on classic novels is usually either quite fun or painful to watch, depending on how much you love the original source material. Modern reworkings don’t always work and the original is usually the better place to start if you’re trying to get yourself into the classics. But when you come across a modern adaptation of story you hadn’t considered before, in this case, Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd, a story you’ve not seen a billion times before like Shakespeare or, yes, even Austen herself, its intriguing, especially if it comes in the form of a graphic novel of awkward size and written and illustrated by Posey Simmonds. Brilliantly written (adapted) with a distinct style that lends itself so well to the characters and location of the story. Simmonds had already given ‘Madame Bovary’ a reworking in ‘Gemma Bovary’, equally as entertaining and brilliantly illustrated, so Hardy’s Bathsheba, seemed like another headstrong, independent thinking and ultimately quite tragic heroine to adapt. Bathsheba became Tamara. From the first page, the graphic novel was film worthy so it was with little surprise and with ease the book came alive on screen.

 

Set in the fictional Ewedown, where the famous crime writer Nicholas Hardiment lives with his long suffering and patient wife Beth live on a farm where they host writers’ retreats. She runs these retreats, the farm, the household, the bookkeeping, edits his pages, sorts out his fan mail and he writes. Their handyman, Andy, helps out, taking on the manual work. His niece and her friend pass the time reading trashy magazine and obsessing over celebs. Then, one day, Tamara returns and literally shakes the village awake. 

 

In the book, we hear the story told from the perspective of Beth, Greg, one of the writers staying at the farm and Andy’s teenage niece Casey but never from Tamara herself. We get voiceovers from Beth and Greg, but instead we are treated to micro flashbacks which paints the picture of Tamara before we really get to know her. Instead of the story just being all about gossip, the film actually gives us more information about the other characters. We’re given more insight into Andy, Ben, Nicholas and Tamara which shapes up more in line with Hardy’s version. Despite the three men in the story, Nicholas, Ben and Andy clearly representing the men in the book; Boldwood, the wealthy older man, Troy, the hot-headed army Sergeant and Gabriel, the gentle farmer, it also feels as if Nicholas Hardiment is also part Hardy himself. Hardiment, a writer, continuously cheats on Beth with younger women, much like Hardy himself. Hardiment suffers the biggest punishment, much like Boldwood but this time is vicious. Hardy is ever present in the story, being the subject of Greg’s book, referenced in the advert for the writers’ retreat and of course in Hardiment.

Tamara is the presented as the catalyst for the events of a whole year beginning with her arrival. She is talked about, discussed, judged and idolised. Her matter of fact manner comes across as harsh or rude but really, she’s just a woman who holds on to the past and wants to be free at the same time. There are moments when she tries to explain how she feels and she gets cut off by the men in her life and misunderstood. She’s a wonderfully complex character that we only get to see in glimpses, just how all the other characters see her.

 

The real catalyst of the story is Jody. Standing in as the tragic character of Robin, Jody obsesses over Tamara, going as far as breaking into her house on a regular basis, trying on her clothes, drinking her wine and is sometimes joined by Casey. Jody loves Ben and is ecstatic when he starts dating Tamara because he’s always in the village but it all goes wrong when he leaves so, naturally, she tries to bring him back. Thankfully her fate is very different to that of Robin which differs from Simmonds’ book, but as Tamara Drewe, the film, is a comedy, they had to keep it light-ish.

 

The film hit its 10^th Anniversary on 10^th September but still feels as fresh as ever. Simmonds’ adaption could easily be seen as cinematic and with a few tweaks here and there, it still holds up as a great British film.