High Flying Bird (2019)

Director Steven Soderbergh’s film for Netflix, High Flying Bird (2019), is a collaboration between Soderbergh, playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney (writer of Moonlight) and actor Andre Holland (also of Moonlight and The Knick) who plays an agent trying to make some moves during an NBA lockout where the salaries of young black players are drying up […]

Blackhat (2015)

After rewatching Michael Mann’s big screen version of Miami Vice on Netflix – a film that I was underwhelmed by when I first saw it but now simply love rewatching (particularly Colin Farrell’s look and the Mogwai soundrops) – I realised that I was keen for more 2000s era Michael Mann (even with his use […]

Heaven Knows What (2014)

After rewatching the Safdie Brothers’ excellent film Good Time on Netflix (this is now my go-to Netflix recommendation now that King Of Comedy is no longer on there), I realised I’d not seen any of their earlier movies. Some of their low budget dramas are hard to find, like Daddy Longlegs, but Heaven Knows What […]

1922 (2017)

Zak Hilditch’s adaptation of the Stephen King novella 1922 (2017) has hit Netflix. While there are references to classic Edgar Allan Poe horror elements of rats and apparitions, it’s more about the truer horror of the evil that men do, how one’s own vanities poison everything around them. One of Thomas Jane’s best performances (not […]

Gemini (2017)

I’ve liked director Aaron Katz ever since a friend loaned me DVDs of his early ‘mumblecore’ films Dance Party USA and Quiet City. With Gemini (2017), Katz still retains intimacy between characters and small stakes stories but has more cinematic, smoother visual style now. Much like an earlier film he did, Cold Weather, Gemini is […]