Jesse Plemons

News, Reviews & Features
  • 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: El Camino is a familiar dose that goes down easy (drugs)

    Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 27th October 2019

    It would make absolutely no difference to anything whether Breaking Bad spin-off movie El Camino existed or not. If in a few years' time show creator Vince Gilligan responded to a fan question at a Comic Con panel with his plan for Jesse instead, the cultural impact would be much the same. That said, Gilligan can direct the hell out of the world he created and this re-visit is a reminder of the show's absorbing style, and of one of the central tenets of Bad: how much chaos can one person cause?

  • American Made

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 30th August 2017

    I'm sorry, the old Tom Cruise can't come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, because he's DEAD.

  • Black Mass

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 4th December 2015

    There are a couple of premises on which Black Mass relies in lieu of a unique selling point. One is the idea, mainly established by marketing over the years, that a radical physical transformation for a role equals a daring and probably great performance. The other is that the audience's familiarity with the structure of the real-life gangster movie is enough to justify doing it all over again. Both are fallacies, and neither is enough to make it sparkle.

  • The Master

    Movie Review | Ali | 1st November 2012

    For all the talk of The Master being a Scientology exposé – the kind which could feasibly cause the very foundations of Hollywood to crumble – Paul Thomas Anderson's sixth feature is instead an intimate, intense character study that's more interested in the dynamic between follower and leader than sharing the secrets of the snake oil salesman. It won't have you calling for the head of Tom Cruise, but it will make you re-evaluate Joaquin Phoenix post I'm Still Here and it will have you longing for PTA movies at a rate of more than one every five years. Woozy, boozy, sleazy and dreamy, it's impossible not to be seduced by The Master – and, indeed, the master.

  • Observe And Report

    Movie Review | Rob | 3rd May 2009

    Another month, another mall cop comedy. Or is it? The trailer does show current King of Comedy Seth Rogen sporting his shortest haircut ever, lusting over Anna Faris and kicking seven shades of shit out of pesky skateboarding yobs in quite the comical fashion. But look a little closer and Observe And Report is a disturbing study...