Rian Johnson is one of the hottest filmmakers of recent years. His take on Star Wars with ‘The Last Jedi’ utterly divided critics and fans, as he proved he could do something different with the seemingly formulaic nature of the franchise. With his new film Knives Out, he again proves a master of subversion, this time taking on the murder mystery genre.
Hellboy is a comic book character created in 1993 by Mike Mignola. After two films by Guillermo del Toro, this R-rated reboot combines the brilliant design of the previous entries with bad language and an unbelievably excessive amount gore. Though it’s riddled with plot holes and story issues, the film is also confident to be utterly bonkers. By breaking the monotony of comic book adaptations to offer something different, you can almost forgive it's narrative sins.
Liam Neeson has decided to do something different with his career. After years of starring in action thrillers where a man gets revenge for losing a family member, he has now made a film about a man who gets revenge after losing a family member…but this time it’s a comedy (sort of). Cold Pursuit isn’t … Continue reading Chilling Revenge (Cold Pursuit review)
Adam McKay is quickly becoming the one of the most unique writer/directors currently working. After creating classic comedies like ‘Anchorman’, ‘Step Brothers’ and ‘The Other Guys’, he turned his attention to more serious topics with ‘The Big Short’, using his comedy background to make the 2008 Financial Crisis entertaining. This time, McKay turns his attention to the White House during the Bush/Cheney administration, and it’s no overstatement to say that he has created a satirical masterpiece.
It’s rare to see a film debut as this, but Boots Riley’s absurdist dark comedy is just that. Telling the story of a young African American telemarketer who speaks in a ‘white voice’ to sell to his clients, it’s themes, tone and ideas are utterly bizarre and pretty original. If Black Mirror was to make an fuelled movie, this would be it.
The Coen Brothers are back! The masters of dark comedy have returned to smaller screens this time with their Netflix distributed western anthology film ‘The Ballad of Buster Scroggs’. After a limited theatrical release, it’s the first of their films to be distributed on a streaming platform. Though it seems a shame that the majority of viewers (myself included) won’t get to see the beautiful frontier locations on the big screen, it actually makes a perfect film for Netflix and a wonderfully enjoyable piece of entertainment.
Nominated for Best Animated Short at the 90th Academy Awards, ‘Garden Party’ is a 7-minute French feature about frogs living in an abandoned mansion. I’m a sucker for a light-hearted film with a super dark twist, so I absolutely loved this.
Daniel Robinson: From Reel to Real 