Latest Movie Features

Spinning a yarn: the twisted sickness of Phantom Thread

Movie Feature | Luke Whiston | 4th February 2020

"Wuaghhhurg" - that's the exact noise I made towards the end of Paul Thomas Anderson's 2017 period romance about a genius dressmaker and his ingenues, which to all external appearances was the simple tale of a sexy rich gentleman misogynist and the women falling prey to his sexy rich charms, set against the backdrop of a Brexiteer's image of 1950s London. I didn't know how wrong I'd be. And it doesn't mean anything that I'd mixed up Phantom Thread with In Fabric and was expecting some spooky ghost action. Although there are hauntings in this, just not of the chain-rattling variety.

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If 2020's Oscar-nominated movie posters told the truth

Movie Feature | Ali Gray, Becky Suter, Matt Looker | 13th January 2020

It's the tenth annual iteration of what's fast becoming our only feature - that's right, it's time for another round of 'If Movie Posters Told The Truth' with me, your increasingly cynical host! We'll be right back after these messages!

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The crushingly inevitable Star Wars group chat email thing: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Movie Feature | Ali Gray, Matthew Looker, Rebecca Suter, Luke Whiston | 28th November 2019

It’s a year with a 2 in it so you know what that means: it’s time to talk about Star Wars again! With Episode IX of the Skywalker Saga on the horizon, we thought it was the perfect time to engage in the ‘group chat’ style communal analysis that has served us so well in the past (that one guy on Twitter seems to like it, and heck, it’s easier than actually writing a proper feature). Over ten movies we will engage in the kind of witty banter and strict discipline that saw us complete 65% of our Marvel rewatch. Now, let’s... ‘Make it so!’.

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Men In Black: International was released and every critic made the same joke

Movie Feature | Matt Looker | 8th July 2019

Attention filmmakers! If your movie franchise contains a unique narrative device that also serves as easy ammunition for critics to use in the event of a bad review, don't kid yourselves that they'll rise above it. They'll latch on to that reference like it's a personal gift from you to them. Thank you, they'll say. Thank you for making our jobs and deadlines easy. Because that's what good film reviews should be. Easy.

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My trip to the Stanley Kubrick exhibition by Luke Whiston age 38 and a half

Movie Feature | Luke Whiston | 3rd July 2019

The late Stanley Kubrick is often considered to be a visionary genius filmmaker, who by all accounts was also an obsessive pain in the arse. But that didn't stop Hollywood's biggest names wanting to work with him, because he was a visionary genius filmmaker. And thank God he was such an obsessive, hoarding decades of research and correspondence, otherwise the new exhibition celebrating his films at The Design Museum in London would have been pretty barren and that would have been well embarrassing.

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Secret Cinema Presents Casino Royale is 00-heaven, has a license to thrill, etc

Movie Feature | Matt Looker | 20th June 2019

Spies! Guns! Booze! Cars! Booze! If you have ever wondered what the point is of Secret Cinema’s immersive film screenings, or have ever asked yourself why anyone would ever be interested in inhabiting the world of, say, Dr Strangelove, then surely that cynicism ends for this latest 007-themed production. Because who hasn’t imagined themselves as the sharpest, sexiest superspy on the big screen? Who hasn’t wanted to indulge in the frisson of international espionage? Who hasn’t wanted to pretend-win a game of make-believe cards while sipping a themed cocktail named after an obscure Bond reference? This is exactly the kind of cinema that Secret Cinema was made to be secret about!

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Marvel's Cine-CHAT-ic Universe: Ant-Man (2015)

Movie Feature | Ali Gray, Matt Looker, Becky Suter, Ed Williamson, Luke Whiston | 8th May 2019

This is it. This is the one where the wheels finally came off. 11 movies deep into the Marvel's Cine-CHAT-ic Universe feature, Ant-Man marks the occasion where everyone has officially lost interest in the concept, due to us being five years and ten movies out of step with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We didn't spoil the Endgame, the Endgame spoiled us.

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Marvel's Cine-CHAT-ic Universe: Avengers: Age Of Ultron (2015)

Movie Feature | Matt Looker, Ali Gray, Becky Suter, Luke Whiston, Ed Williamson | 10th April 2019

We have two weeks to go until Avengers: Endgame brings about the end of an 11-year-long story arc and changes the MCU as we know it forever. So what better time to revisit an old Avengers movie from four years ago? That's right, we're back with another instalment of our less-than-semi-regular Marvel movie email discussion feature, which might even have been a better title than 'Marvel's Cine-CHATIC Universe'.

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Marvel's Cine-CHAT-ic Universe: Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)

Movie Feature | Ali Gray, Matt Looker, Becky Suter, Ed Williamson, Luke Whiston | 28th March 2019

It's the regular feature you assumed had been quietly abandoned - but we've got nothing else going on right now! We're back with another scintillating edition of Marvel's Cine-CHATIC Universe: this week/month/quarter, we're talking about James Gunn's Guardians Of The Galaxy, but also, very much other things too.

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Marvel's Cine-CHAT-ic Universe: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Movie Feature | Matt Looker, Ali Gray, Becky Suter, Luke Whiston, Ed Williamson | 27th February 2019

Following the low-point (both in terms of the MCU and our attempts at having an insightful discussion) that was Thor: The Dark World, we’re back on track now with Captain America’s first solo sequel. Don’t let that fool you though - we certainly haven’t stepped up our game in any way. The recurring feature of diminishing returns continues!

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