Jauja

Long takes, still camera and minimal dialogue. It's all a bit Tarkovsky, but left me asking what and why, which generally isn't the case with the Russian director, who is clearly a massive influence here. It has also has a definite Western vibe (yet another in 2015 - see here for others) and is framed …

Southpaw

Surprisingly, this film doesn't contain a training montage to the soundtrack of an Eminem rap. Naahhhhh, only kidding - of course it does. You didn't expect anything else, did you? I'm not a fan of boxing, or the boxing movie genre, so I can't tell you if this is good or bad in the long …

Magic Mike XXL

I'd put off going to see this because I had really liked MAGIC MIKE, and had heard that this was a different type of experience. And to be honest, it is different, but that's not a bad thing. Whereas the first film was more soul-searching and melancholy, this one has a lighter tone. The plot is …

In the footsteps of the Corleone Family

    There's a village near Palermo in Sicily called Corleone, which would lead you to believe that scenes from The Godfather films were shot here. However, the actual location for these scenes in on the other side of the island, shared between two different villages - Savoca and Forza d'Agrò. Fortunately, I was staying …

Ant-Man

My first thought, knowing nothing at all about this character or his story, was "Ant? Man?" pretty much like Peter Kay here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0APKUbbLPmc The idea was bewildering. And I don't like insects, and I'm not a great fan of Evangeline Lilly, so it wasn't looking good. But actually, I had fun with this. It seemed to …

Elser – 13 Minutes

Isn't it funny how the way a film's title is translated can give a totally different impression of what the film is going to be about? I knew the premise of the film - in 1939, a plot to assassinate Hitler failed by the titular 13 minutes. I hadn't even paid attention to the film's …

Love and Mercy

Interesting choice to cast two different actors to play the same person 20 years apart. It was clearly the best thing to do, but I'm just not quite sure that the choices made were the right ones.Paul Dano's awkward brilliance was perfect, but although John Cusack wasn't bad, I think he was the wrong selection. …

Home School Film School 1st Films

I joined the guys at Film Dispenser looking back at first films from notable directors. I created a list of the chosen films over on Letterboxd, where I also share my opinions on each of the films after I'd seen them, and I ranked them at the end of the event. It was a really …

Amy

Much as I enjoy a good documentary, in the past few years I have struggled with them as I've felt manipulated by a number which others have rated really highly (Stories We Tell and Mistaken For Strangers to name two). Asif Kapadia and his team seem to have found a way around (most of) this …