… And Justice for All (1979)

Rewatching for my The Complete Pacino list. This looks very dated now, and isn't helped by the 80s crime show soundtrack, yet the attack on the justice system is still pertinent. Pacino as the best lawyer in town was a bit Saturday night television, but the closing speech is something to behold and in itself warranted …

Arrival

A linguist is one of the first ports of call when aliens stop by for a visit. I've studied and had an interest in language my whole life, so this was guaranteed to have my curiosity from the outset. Pleasingly, this aspect continues to play a part throughout the picture - but there's so much …

The Light Between Oceans

It is official. My heart is made of stone. Shannon Plumb, wife of director Derek Cianfrance, wrote that the reason this film was not well received at the Venice Film Festival is because most film critics at the screenings were men. She wrote: Women who see the film love it. When they did the weekend …

Nocturnal Animals

I'm still thinking about this film. Partly about the images, partly about the story, and partly about how much I liked it. I did like it, that's for sure, but I'm not quite sure how much. It looks beautiful. Every shot is framed to perfection, most obviously in the present day life of Amy Adams …

Doctor Strange

Woah. So many things in this film seemed incredibly familiar, which is strange (sorry) since I went into this with zero knowledge of the character and having only seen the teaser trailer. Eschewing a training montage in favour of letting the audience work out that time had passed and skills had been acquired was actually …

Childhood Movie Scares – inspired by the Filmspotting podcast

I'm a week behind on this podcast, and so I guess its my own fault that I ended up listening to it driving over the Pennines, in the dark, through the fog, alone. I hadn't planned it that way - I'm a real wuss when it comes to horror films, and so I actively avoid …

Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World

Werner Herzog investigates the Internet and I haven't a clue what the first half hour was about but that was fine because Herzog was narrating. This series of interviews looks at a different aspect of the internet's impact on society - from hacking to the colonisation of Mars to addiction. Several of them actually deserved …