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  • Review: The Devil All The Time explores the root of good ol' American evil

    Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 7th October 2020

    Ahh Friday night, another week from hell over, time to unwind with a movie. And what's this - a new one starring Spider-Man, Bucky from Avengers, and the latest Batman? What is it, some sort of Marvel/DC crossover? And it's got the word 'devil' in the title too? Sounds like a recipe for some exciting spooky comic book action! I don't see how this can possibly be an upsetting experience! Good times ahead! Get in loser, we're going to have fun!

  • Review: I'm Thinking Of Ending Things is Kaufman at his most alienating

    Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 3rd October 2020

    It's both a blessing and a curse being plugged into Twitter 24/7. When a highly-anticipated new film comes out from a figure such as Charlie Kaufman and the discourse turns divisive, you can't help taking a peek to see what the fuss is about. But then as soon as you do that it starts to cloud your own judgement - takes from all across the heat spectrum making your timeline resemble a Nando's PERI-ometer. What makes it worse is when a movie comes loaded with references and semiotics, enabling the cultural gatekeepers and aggressive fanboy apologists. Not saying that's what has happened with the auteur Charlie Kaufman's genius new film I'm Thinking Of Ending Things, which I definitely understood and will cut you if you suggest otherwise, but it's a distinct possibility.

  • Review: The Babysitter: Killer Queen is a sequel that's stuck in the past

    Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 27th September 2020

    I wasn't going to review The Babysitter: Killer Queen because it is a horribly bad film. But then I remembered that the world is in this sorry state because people aren't doing much to help each other out right now, and the film contains a good reason to do just that, even though it wasn't the intention of the filmmakers. So please consider this a PSA.

  • Review: The Peanut Butter Falcon is more than a silly nammm peanut butter

    Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 10th September 2020

    What cultural works wouldn't be improved with the addition of wrestling? Imagine John David Washington's Tenet protagonist performing a reverse suplex... in reverse! Or Queequeg acting as a hype man for Captain Ahab in Moby Dick. Or the Little Women charging towards the ring one by one in a furious royal rumble. Bargain Hunt cage match. See? There's a whole genre there waiting to be discovered. This is going somewhere.

  • Review: Tenet once again shows that Christopher Nolan is ahead of his time

    Movie Review | Matt Looker | 31st August 2020

    In case anyone still hasn’t realised it yet, Christopher Nolan loves time. He loves it soooo much. He wants to marry time and have sweet little pocket-watch babies. He wants to go to prison so that he can ’do’ time. Because if he’s not telling an entire film in reverse chronological order like in Memento, or revealing multiple flashbacks within flashbacks like in The Prestige, he’s creating a story in which three separate narratives that run over distinctly different time periods all unfold simultaneously, like in Inception and Dunkirk. Time is Christopher Nolan’s life, and he is having the best of it. Which is why Tenet can easily be seen as the most Christopher Nolan film that Christopher Nolan has made so far - it brings this particular favourite theme of his into sharp focus. Frankly, It’s about time.

  • Review: Project Power hits the right beats but offers nothing new

    Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 26th August 2020

    Netflix is an odd one isn't it. In order to operate they need to attract a certain amount of subscribers, so cast a wide net of shiny mid-budget fare with no pretension the films don't exist to reel in the dollars. It's pure returns-driven broad entertainment, designed to appeal to as many people as possible but that leaves little cultural footprint. Other studios do this, of course - it is a movie industry after all - but the frequency of ho hum numbers generated by Netflix does nothing for their reputation as a production line serving up gruel, and the next announcement always comes with a twinge of doubt. Anyway I just watched this new Netflix film called Project Power.

  • Review: Host is a techno-horror that dials up the scares

    Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 19th August 2020

    31st October 1992. I am 11 years old and about to become part of a very special club: children who were accidentally allowed to stay up late for BBC's Ghostwatch. For the uninitiated; Ghostwatch was billed as a fun live spook hunt from a haunted council house, which spiralled out of control as the pipe-clanging spirit of a disfigured paedophile assaulted Saturday morning kids TV hosts Sarah Greene and Craig Charles, apparently killing a number of the crew, before beaming itself into a television studio and possessing the UK's common sense uncle, Michael Parkinson. It was terrifying. The ensuing furore in schools and media ensured the broadcast was shelved for years. But the damage was done, scars were formed - and the next Ghostwatch has been sought out ever since.

  • Review: Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is low on laughs but makes a bold statement

    Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 13th August 2020

    I hate the Eurovision Song Contest. I hate the blinding shiny lights and the garish tackiness - it's what I imagine dropping acid in a Claire's Accessories would be like. I hate the awkward jokes and the hosts bumbling their way through, clearly wishing they were anywhere else. I hate the smugly sly politicisation, even if it is often an accurate and honest representation of feeling towards us and our continental neighbours. I hate the forced laughter. I hate the constant smiling. But most of all I hate the songs. Yes, I hate it. I hate the Eurovision Song Contest because I hate myself and can't admit that it is in fact FUCKING BRILLIANT!

  • Review: The Aeronauts is an uplifting ode to the spirit of discovery

    Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 26th March 2020

    There's something compelling about a singular premise. Gravity and The Martian both made good use of theirs, squeezing every second of tension out of a sequence of continually escalating nightmare scenarios, all in service of one outcome. What those films have in common are protagonists who want to survive not just through a desire to see their efforts validated, but also as avatars of a very human need to prove we can overcome the challenges of nature as a species able to shape the world around us. It's affecting, connective stuff, and rings true on a fundamental level. But whereas Matt Damon's character in The Martian mostly concerned himself with potatoes, if I've learnt anything from The Aeronauts it's to always carry a knife.

  • Review: Spenser Confidential is a bad film so I wrote a bad review

    Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 20th March 2020

    This is going to be one of those reviews that mostly just describes what happens in the film, with no real insight into the plot or themes - not that there are much of either - but it's the only way I can think to get across how monumentally idiotic Spenser Confidential is. Another way would be telling you it's a direct-to-Netflix action movie starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by Peter Berg and letting you make up your own mind, but I had to suffer through it and now so do you.