Best Films of 2019 1. Sorry We Missed You As he did with I, Daniel Blake, British director Ken Loach delivers an excruciatingly honest and effortlessly powerful look at the state of working-class Britain. Here he shows the plight of a struggling family where the father works as a contracted parcel driver forced to adhere to an impossible schedule while
Read moreWhen the trailer for Tom Hooper’s cinematic version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats hit the internet a few months ago it’s images of venerable actors like Judy Dench prancing around in furry-faced cat costumes were met with a torrent of ridicule. Sometimes trailers can be deceiving and in the broader context of the film itself, bizarre and ludicrous
Read moreWith a guaranteed worldwide audience but also an amazingly finicky, near-fundamentalist fan base, helming a Star Wars film must be a very tantalising and yet daunting prospect for any director. After directing the mostly loved The Force Awakens, JJ Abrams takes back the reins from Rian Johnson who gave us the intriguingly off-beat but ultimately silly, The Last Jedi. With
Read moreTHE ‘BUILT FOR SPEED: END OF YEAR SPECTACULAR’ This Friday night it’s the big one folks, the ‘Built For Speed: End of Year Spectacular’. You want self-indulgent lists? Look no further as the ‘Built For Speed’ crew reveal their best, worst, most overrated and underrated films, their favourite albums and the best and worst TV of 2019. We’ll also have
Read moreThe original Jumanji from 1995 was a minor Gen X pop cultural touchstone. Often resembling a Spielberg film, it combined childhood escapist adventure, over-the-top special effects and the late Robin Williams patented brand of manic performance for a mostly entertaining adventure. Sniffing the Gen X nostalgia dollar and the instant merch potential of a film built around a video game,
Read moreNew Zealand director Taika Waititi has been one of the more surprising Hollywood success stories. His idiosyncratically Kiwi comedies have leapt over cultural barriers to gain the attention of major Hollywood players and earn him A-list status. Some, like myself, may not have entirely warmed to his droll, piss-taking style of humour although the fact that it infiltrated the vast
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