film review tagged posts

Honest, humorous and realistically sombre, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is powerful piece of cinema

I’m not usually a fan of tear-jerker films but when I heard Me and Earl and the Dying Girl received a standing ovation at the Sundance Festival, I had to see what all the fuss was about… and I’m really glad I did.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a coming-of-age drama about an adolescent friendship in the midst of terminal illness...

Considering most Hollywood films about popular music tend to flop (think Village People’s Can’t Stop The Music, Mariah Carey’s Glitter and Biggie Smalls biopic Notorious), Max Joseph makes a bold move in his directorial debut with We Are Your Friends.

Working from his own screenplay, co-written with Meaghan Oppenheimer, We Are Your Friends tells the story of Cole Carter (Zac Efron), a struggling 23-year-old DJ who dreams of becoming a major record producer in the Los Angeles electronic da...

National Lampoon fans rejoice – the Griswolds are back! This week sees the release of Vacation, a reboot of the original National Lampoon film starring Ed Helms as Rusty, the son of Chevy Chase’s iconic character.

In an attempt to spice things up with his wife and reconnect with his sons, Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) takes his family on a cross-country excursion to America’s favourite fun park, “Walley World”. The film is the fifth installment of the National Lampoon’s Vacation film series and is ...

Following its debut at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in earlier this year, Bobcat Goldthwait’s latest documentary Call Me Lucky finally hits the big screen.

Call Me Lucky is a biographical documentary film that tells the incredible life story of Barry Crimmins, a politically outspoken comedian-turned-activist who helped to expose child pornography online.

The documentary opens with video footage from a stand-up comedy night in Boston in 1990...

20th Century Fox’s reboot of Fantastic Four fails to compete with other Marvel films

This week sees the release of 20th Century Fox’s reboot of the comic book franchise the Fantastic Four. As a Marvel fan, I was eager to see what director Josh Trank had in store for Marvel’s original and longest-running superhero team, particularly as it’s been rather quiet on the media front (clearly 20th Century Fox had an embargo). The result, unfortunately, is rather mixed.

For those who aren’t fami...

Tense, thrilling and visually stunning, Tom Cruise is back on top form in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

Tom Cruise and the team are back with the fifth installment in the Mission: Impossible series, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. Donna Kelly reviews for Frankly My Dear…

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation sees Tom Cruise reprises his role as IMF Agent Ethan Hunt, as Hunt and his team take on their most impossible mission yet, eradicating ‘The Syndicate’ – an international rogue o...

A Dozen Summers is a light-hearted, funny and entertaining coming-of-age comedy

If you’re looking for a light-hearted, funny family film to keep the children entertained this summer, check out A Dozen Summers. 

A Dozen Summers is a coming-of-age comedy about two twelve-year-old girls trying to make sense of life in the 21st century. It follows Maisie and Daisy McCormack, twin sisters who inadvertently hijack a children’s adventure film and proceed to tell the story of their own lives...

Marvel’s Ant-Man/Scott Lang (Paul Rudd). Photo Credit: Film Frame © Marvel 2015

Marvel Studios strike gold again with Ant-Man

It seems like Marvel can do no wrong at the moment. Following the success of Avengers: Age of Ultron earlier this year (the third-highest-grossing film of 2015), the studios appear to have struck gold again with the release of Ant-Man.

Armed with a super-suit that can shrink in size, Ant-Man tells the story of con-man Scott Lang, who must embrace his inner hero to pull...

Desert Cathedral makes UK Premiere at 2015 Manchester Film Festival

Desert Cathedral is a very emotionally challenging film to watch not just because of the subject matter of suicide but also because this happens to be based on a true story, made to feel even more real by the VHS archival footage integrated throughout the film.

Beautifully shot and directed by Travis Gurtiérrez Senger, Desert Cathedral is a captivating story about the 1992 disappearance into the Southwestern desert of Peter C...

Sidewalk Traffic makes UK Premiere at 2015 Manchester Film Festival

Making its UK premiere at the 2015 Manchester Film Festival is Sidewalk Traffic, a drama comedy about the harsh world of independent filmmaking.

Directed and written by Anthony L. Fisher, Sidewalk Traffic tells the story of Declan (Johnny Hopkins), a struggling 30 year old filmmaker and new father who is squeezed out of a promotion...