French film, After Blue is one of the weirdest movies of the year and one that shows that weirdness alone does not necessarily equal fascinating art or entertainment. In what might be glibly dubbed eco-feminist science fiction, it’s set in a future where humanity has fled an environmentally devastated Earth to the planet, After Blue where only women have survived
Read moreSteadily emerging as one of the most interesting contemporary filmmakers, Alex Garland, who intrigued and unnerved us with his AI thriller Ex Machina, brings us his creepiest film yet, the oddball horror misogyny parable, Men. As anyone who has seen the evil, shiny, puppet-like face in the promo will realise, there’s something decidedly sinister at work in this film. Here,
Read moreDownton Abbey: A New Era. The TV series Downton Abbey, which depicted the lives of the lords and ladies of the Crawley family who inhabited the titular estate in the 1910’s and 20’s, lay somewhere between sophisticated drama and super-sized soap. Its slightly dubious celebration of privilege and apparent endorsement of class divisions was made palatable by the quality of
Read moreThe Northman The trailer for the Viking drama The Northman suggested a slightly silly sword-swinging muscleman epic or something like a feature length episode of the compelling but at times comically overwrought TV show Vikings. All of the above is partly true but this tale of filial vengeance comes from writer director Robert Eggers who helmed the remarkable and exceptionally
Read moreEverything Everywhere All At Once We recently bemoaned the dearth of original ideas in Hollywood with the roster of current and upcoming films stuffed with sequels, reboots and remakes. Whether or not the incredibly weird existential, sci fi comedy Everything Everywhere All At Once – the brainchild of writer/directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as ‘the Daniels’ –
Read moreThe Book of Love With the amiable but often weirdly flat and unfunny culture clash rom com, The Book Of Love, Sam Claflin seems to be trying to grab Hugh Grant’s now vacant title as the resident charming, floppy-haired, bumbling Brit. Unfortunately, a performance that’s often shouty, whiny and confused deprives him and the film overall of anything like Grant’s
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