John Lee Hancock

News, Reviews & Features
  • Review: The Highwaymen is your dad's new favourite film

    Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 11th April 2019

    I was reading an article today about the cartel leader El Chapo, who is currently in prison for murder, drug trafficking and money laundering, among other things. So beloved is El Chapo, and so cherished his image by the common folk of Mexico, he's been able to launch a fashion line from his cell. It's a curious feature of the human brain that we allow ourselves to be attracted towards these dark figures, hailing them as heroes despite the devastation their crimes have caused. I guess all it takes is a media-friendly mugshot and enough degrees of separation to empathise with someone who would do you harm if you ever crossed them. Back at the start of our modern press age, Bonnie & Clyde were like a prototype of the El Chapo phenomenon; shown a dose of forgiveness due to the romanticism associated with their escapades. The reality was they were killers who needed to be stopped - an inevitability due to the attention they'd brought upon themselves - and the job fell to two middle-aged men, sent criss-crossing endless dusty roads in an olde timey car. But just because there's nothing sexy about that story, does it mean it shouldn't be told?

  • Saving Mr Banks

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 26th November 2013

    As obvious an awards tilt as Disney knows Saving Mr Banks to be, it seems more of a mid-budget passion project. How better to venerate its beloved founder than have cuddly ol' Tom Hanks play him? But transparent self-promotion aside - this is Disney, after all - what's really interesting is how it plays out as white-washing advocacy for the process of Hollywoodizing a popular product, using emotion rather than reason to sweep you along and make you root for the studio. And the fact that the film is itself a Hollywoodization of true events.