Review: How I Spent My Summer Vacation****
Not to be confused with the 1997 teenie film of the same name, this is Mel Gibson’s new drama, How I Spent My Summer Vacation that for those in the know seems part like a film version of Rusty Young’s brilliantly gripping Marching Powder. It seems that Gibson – who needs a career/personality boost and is the co-writer on this film – has possibly taken some ideas from this novel about the real-life experiences of a drug dealer in a Bolivian jail run like a miniature city. In terms of a Gibson revival after the rather odd and equally retrospective…
Review: Dark Shadows***
Once upon a time, the Burton-Depp partnership was such a sure thing with every project they entered into that they seemed to have the monopoly on quirky Gothic tales; we fell in love with Edward Scissorhands and were enchanted by Corpse Bride. So the chance to see the pair collaborate on a feature-film version of Dan Curtis’s much-loved TV show, Dark Shadows, seemed like ideal material. However, as has been the case since Alice in Wonderland, too much of a good thing has led to them becoming complacent and lacking any new ideas. Burton fans will find some satisfaction in…
Review: American Pie: Reunion***
The boys are back in town, looking a little older (some sporting facial hair and others possible plastic surgery), but certainly none the wiser when it comes to women. Jim (Jason Biggs), Oz (Chris Klein), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) and Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) are still a bunch of ‘little boys lost’, only to find that they’re far more mature than first thought when compared to The Stiffmeister, Stifler (Seann William Scott) who has never got away from the home town. We have as much anticipation as the boys to experience a great reunion, and predictable beginning aside to remind…
Review: Damsels in Distress***
Whit Stillman returns more with of a pop than a bang, after a 14-year absence with another take on neurotic, privileged, preppy middle-class existence with Damsels in Distress. It delivers a shining new star in Greta Gerwig as the film’s no-nonsense, self-appointed philanthropist, Violet, who tragically believes her college life mission is to better those social groups in need, uncannily masking her own troubles. This feels like a version of Heathers or Mean Girls, but with Stillman’s acute, dry wit in the continual chatter and the oddly outdated innocence to it, it is without the contemporary social ills of other teen…
Review: Strippers Vs Werewolves***
Director Jonathan Glendening of 13Hrs werewolf notoriety doesn’t move that far away from his furry feral fiends in his latest grizzly flick, Strippers Vs Werewolves. This exceptionally daft, tongue-in-cheek pastiche of the erotic slasher B-movie also taps into the comic-book filmmaking fascination of recent years with deviant glee, but all with the sole purpose of entertaining in the most blood spewing and badly acted way. And for those who never tire of Robert ‘Freddy’ Englund cameos, there’s a treat for fans too. After werewolf Mickey (Martin Kemp) is accidentally killed in strip club Vixens, the girls who work there have until…
Review: Avengers Assemble (3D)****
The wait is over, and it’s been well worth it to see the likes of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) join forces with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) in a superb superhero finale to save the planet. And opposite every hero should be a worthy component to do battle with – in this case, Thor’s ego-bruised stepbrother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Director Joss Whedon’s offering allows each Marvel member a chance to shine and retain their mighty personality, hence, going to satisfy fans of each character…
Review: Delicacy***
Audrey Tautou has come a long way since her touching, doe-eyed international debut in Amelie. The actress is typecast in such feisty, cutesy roles that it’s hard to determine whether she’s good or just a natural charmer – a bit of both perhaps. In debut directors David Foenkinos and Stéphane Foenkinos’ new romance, Delicacy, we find a more determined Tautou at play – who still commands the screen in a delightfully challenging role about life, love and death. Nathalie (Tautou) is a beautiful, happy and successful Parisian business executive who finds herself suddenly widowed after a three-year marriage to her…
Review: La Grande Illusion****
La Grande Illusion is Jean Renoir’s poetic 1937 anti-war masterpiece that triumphs international unity while poignantly and good-heartedly mocks man’s egotistical obsession with gaining power. It has some genre-defining performances from Jean Gabin and Pierre Fresnay that surely influenced later, like-minded films, such as those of The Great Escape, Catch 22etc. It also quirkily explores war as the ultimate class leveller, doing away with conventional social barriers and creating newer, temporary (if irrelevant) ones, making for a fascinating and witty dynamic filled with contemporary value. During the First World War, two French airmen – wealthy aristocratic officer De Boeldieu (Fresnay)…
Review: Mirror Mirror**
The crux of the Snow White story is oddly missing in Tarsem Singh’s adaptation of the classic fairy-tale – namely the dominant power of the mirror that controls the destiny of all who stares into it. This cocky, camp modernization attempts a blend modern-day austerity/irony with family-friendly humour that doesn’t quite mesh. Its lead star Julia Roberts as the wicked stepmother is neither convincingly evil nor devishly funny, and spends the majority of the time merely looking smug at all her screen time – Singh has certainly got his A-list exposure for his money. The story is a very 21st Century…
Review: Tiny Furniture****
Fresh emerging talent Lena Dunham is cinema’s female answer to Jesse Eisenberg, all self-depreciation, quirky awkwardness, acute observation and razor-sharp wit for the trendy crowd. Tiny Furniture, which she wrote and directed at the age of 23, is almost a semi-autobiographical look at the beginnings of post-graduate life, following on from her 2009 college days flick, Creative Nonfiction. This new feature film’s authentic feel will ring alarm bells as Dunham’s character Aura returns home to New York’s trendy Tribeca, and attempts to carve our a worthy existence after student life. Native New Yorker Dunham instantly taps into the fears of…
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