Tomas Alfredson

News, Reviews & Features
  • The Snowman

    Movie Review | Ali Gray | 12th October 2017

    Murder mysteries exist in a weird sort of critical stasis while you're watching them, because any story that hinges on an explosive final act reveal floats in limbo until it has shown its hand. Such a reveal - a surprise identity, a killer motive, a shock twist - may cause you to reassess everything you've already seen. The best films of the genre do just that: they cleverly subvert what you think you saw, fill in plot gaps you didn't know were there and, like a smug serial killer, flaunt the fact that they've been one step ahead of you the whole time. Yeah, The Snowman does not do any of that. You watch attentively and wait patiently and cross your legs and twiddle your thumbs but come the crushingly disappointing final act, the only dawning realisation you have is this: The Snowman is a bad movie and it turns out it had been all along. Twist!

  • Top 10 films of our lifetime #8: Let The Right One In

    Movie Feature | Neil Alcock | 17th September 2014

    Number #8 on the countdown of the Top 10 films of our lifetime is the only foreign language film to make the grade. That doesn't mean we're not a continental bunch, however: I've been to Iceland, which is a bit like Sweden, and I walked past a cinema (it was showing Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, which I'd already seen, making me feel like a cinephile) - Ali.

  • Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

    Movie Review | Matt | 13th September 2011

    As much as I would like to believe that real-life spies jet around the world using their blow-dart pens and laser watches to prevent megalomaniacs from stealing Fiji, this film is probably closer to the truth. John Le Carré’s double agent vision (based on his own experiences working for the intelligence services) tells a less dynamic tale of political decisions, uneasy alliances and lots of sizing people up. And instead of a simple mission involving a casino, a volcano lair and a henchmen fight, this authentic spy-work is complicated as fuck.

  • Let The Right One In

    Movie Review | Steven | 4th May 2009

    The world hasn't come down yet from the whole Twilight extravaganza: not only is the sequel in production, it seems that they are getting ready to prepare parts three and four of the franchise. But before Twilight fever sinks its fangs in us again, along comes a vampire movie cut from a different cloth entirely. Let the Right...