Jackie (2016)

I completely missed Jackie (2016) when it was out during the busy summer movie/award movie period but finally caught up with it and yeah, it was excellent. Natalie Portman’s performance, Stephane Fontaine’s cinematography, Mica Levi’s score, Pablo Larrain’s direction, just everything working at a quality level to present a layered, immersive portrait. Can’t believe it […]

Blade Of The Immortal (2017)

Blade Of The Immortal (2017; Mugen no jūnin) is a two and a half hour samurai action epic with supernatural undertones and ghoulish flashes of humour and violence befitting the reputation of its director, Takashi Miike (his 100th film as director). It’s about a masterless samurai, Manji (played by Takuya Kimura, wonderfully surly) cursed with […]

The Endless (2017)

Missed it in the brief window it was at cinemas, The Endless (2017) is a low budget, independent sci-fi mystery focused on two brothers (played by the directors, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead). They’ve spent ten years living together working dead end jobs after escaping from a religious cult in the woods – one of […]

In A Valley Of Violence (2016)

Directed by Ti West (House of the Devil, The Innkeepers) and produced by Blumhouse, In A Valley Of Violence (2016) is a satisfying B-movie western, a bit like John Wick (unfortunately for animal lovers) as weary soldier Ethan Hawke and his trusty dog (played by Jumpy) try to move through a small town without trouble […]

The Villainess (2017)

The South Korean action film The Villainess (2017; Ak Nyeo) starts out high octane with a POV action sequence that’s like a video game (POV action doesn’t really do it for me, I think for action to be gripping you need to see the protagonist in the action) but once the camera whips around to […]