United Kingdom
2014 should really be known as “The Year of the Biopic.” There have been films this past year that were based on many world-reknown icons, from Martin Luther King to Stephen Hawking to pop singer James Brown. And somewhere in the midst of all those comes the story of Alan Turing, a British mathematician that almost single-handedly won World War II.
Pretty much every big screen reboot of a beloved childhood TV show has been terrible. Yet for people with a certain nostalgia for it, they will end up loving it regardless of quality. I never watched the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when I was growing up, which is why I can recognize that the recent Michael Bay-produced reboot is terrible, but a worrying amount of people I’m friends with can’t see it as anything other than an extension of what they loved when they were younger.
The Theory of Everything is the story of Stephen Hawking, reflecting his life from his early 20’s until decades later after he had become a world icon. It is at times overly romanticized, and tends to overlook certain elements of Hawking’s disease in order to instead focus on the obvious triumphs of his life. It is still a worthy film, though, and this is mostly due to Eddie Redmayne’s fantastic performance.
Tom Hardy is one of the most versatile and talented actors in film today. His resume is proof. From his first performance as Twombly in Black Hawk Down, to his most recent one as Bob in The Drop, he has delivered a dazzling array of characters on screen.
Every time you look for new horror movies the same ten titles show up. The Shining, Jaws, The Exorcist, The Haunting, Psycho, Nightmare on Elm Street, Alien, Halloween, The Ring, and Night of the Living Dead. Not to say that these aren’t great films, they’re on the best lists for a reason; they’re classics!
There are a million great films outside the U.S, it’s just you haven’t seen them. Good fortune smiles on you today because I’m here to show 15 foreign flicks you should have seen a long time ago.
The Quiet Ones director John Pogue took a risk – inviting the viewer to follow along with Professor Joseph Coupland’s (Jared Harris) “experiment” to prove that the supernatural is simply a manifestation created in the minds of the mentally disturbed. What Professor Coupland and his team didn’t expect was a genuine haunting. The Quiet Ones was unexpected, different.
When I saw the first preview of this film, it appealed to me as a sci-fi thriller fan. I had every intention of going to the theaters to see it, but alas, I waited too long. Meanwhile, Gravity won several Academy Awards including Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, and Best Original Score.
Last weekend I attended a screening of Jim Jarmusch’s latest production, Only Lovers Left Alive, at the Luna Leederville Cinema here in Perth (which, by the way, is a beautiful original 20’s art deco cinema). While I’ve only seen two of Jim Jarmusch’s movies (Coffee and Cigarettes and Dead Man), Only Lovers Left Alive has Jarmusch’s distinctly recognizable style: it’s dark, pretty, it’s gritty, and very witty (how’s that for rhyming?
Wes Anderson can be an acquired taste. Settling on gathering enjoyment from his films can come after much deliberation as to whether he’s serious about the utterly finicky nature he employs in his chosen colour palettes, set construction, camera movements and scrupulous plot details. But his films carry far more value than the kind of hipster magnetism that seemingly oozes out of them.
Anyone who enjoys a complex character should see Filth. We discuss the movie’s representation of corruption and explanations for criminal behavior.
Bronson chronicles the life of infamous British prisoner Michael Peterson, a.k.a.