News / Entertainment
Review – Oblix Restaurant at the Shard
Twas a dark and windy night walking through London Bridge, my destination wasn't that much further but the chill on the wind had made my pace increase from leisurely to hurried. I looked up at the night sky and towering above me was my destination, Oblix Restaurant in the Shard in all it's glory. The rooftop lighting up the skyline and the impressive design that...
Call Me By Your Name Review
Love is love no matter what gender it befalls; Luca Guadagino states this fact boldly and without repercussion in such a delightfully tender composition, elegantly sneaking up on the audience with a warmth that sings out with operatic audacity. Brokeback Mountain, this is not, the brashness of the relationship between the two men there was laden heavy with bigotry,...
Coco Review
Disney team up yet again with Pixar for their latest cultural offering with a tremendous amount of heart and vibrancy. Director Lee Unkrich’s vision of spectacular colour embodies the Disney template spicing up the picture with humour, sprinkling with a melancholic learning experience of cultural traditions and grief and filling its very core with catchy musical tinklings - especially with a touching ditto...
Journey’s End Review
RC’ Sheriff’s poignant war story has been adapted for the stage and film on numerous occasions over the years. In Saul Dibbs latest adaptation for the big screen, we are engulfed in a deeply affecting era of hope and despair on a personal and emotionally charged level. Stripping back to just the essentials and delving deep into the souls of those forced onto the front...
Phantom Thread Review
It’s almost criminal that Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread is Daniel Day-Lewis’s swansong. The award winning actor has taken method to levels of extremity and immersed himself into character after character with a passionate realism that embroils audiences to his pictures. In his final bow, Lewis brings to life Reynolds Woodcock’s 1950’s style and grace with an artist’s flair of confidence and disdain; giving a master class in believability in...
A Star is Born Review
Now on its fourth remake, A Star is Born heads into a new generation with Bradley Cooper not just at the helm of this gut-wrenchingly emotional and epic version but also having a hand in co-writing the script and taking a rough and mentally damaged role. The history of this story goes as far back as 1937, it later...
The Favourite Review
Olivia Colman puts in an award-winning performance in this hilarious bat-shit crazy picture which is by far Lanthimos at his uninhabited finest. Not one to stick to the norm, Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos follow’s up the cold and muted territory of The Killing of a Sacred Deer with a step back in time to the Royal Court of Queen Anne. A...
Mangrove Review – London Film Festival 2020
Steve McQueen kicks of his Small Axe Anthology with a whirlwind force of nature, a poignant, eloquent and electrically charged hotbed of British stark reality of racial tension. As the hotbed of racial tensions bubble over in the US and UK, filmmaker Steve McQueen’s first feature in the Small Axe anthology – which consists of five films – couldn’t feel...
Love/Me/Do Review
An unofficial but commonly agreed upon measure of how good a film is, is if it stays with you after the credits. Do you think about the characters, the story, a particular image? In some instances, you’ll tell people you know because it’s on your mind and you want to discuss it with someone. Even more so if there’s...
Embrace Review
With the phenomena of social media and the internet at the centre of global culture, it seems crucial that the discussion of body image is addressed. The conversation has actually been happening for a very long time, but without ever really managing to break the surface of the blanket of mass media that surrounds and dictates our lives every day....
John Wick Chapter 2 Review
John Wick is the type of action hero that cinema needs and deserves, which was demonstrated superbly in the original John Wick film. John Wick Chapter 2 solidifies this idea and provides a new standard of high-octane, gripping, gut-punching action. Any action film aims to create hair-raising thrills and blood-pumping combat scenes, though many feel flat and flashy. The world...
The Ivory Game Review
The Ivory Game is a groundbreaking documentary that tracks wildlife activists as they take on poachers in an effort to end the illegal ivory trade in Africa. It is a harrowing globe-trotting affair as we meet the people who put their lives on the line –entrenched in the deep heart of darkness fighting for the survival of the elephants. As...
REVIEW: HUNter 486 at The Arch hotel
The problem with London is that you often end up paying a small fortune for a nice setting in a posh location and feeling cheated so when someone suggested HUNter 486 at The Arch hotel it was with a certain amount of skepticism we went for a visit. Firstly this is a beautiful, peaceful and luxurious setting, that is unarguable....
Vice Review
Filled to the brim with eye-opening power plays delivered with excellence. It’s a Vice that just kept on giving with frequently witty scenarios and liberal intelligence. In his latest, director Adam McKay takes a leaf out of his own structural efforts from The Big Short and planted them seamlessly into his latest ‘biographical’ move. He delves into the world of...
Victoria and Abdul Review
It’s not very often we see an actor reprise a role they so dutiful thrived in twenty years previous, except Dame Judy Dench, who excelled as the cantankerous Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown only to regally accept Stephen Frears offer to return to clad the black mourning dress for the comedic and delightful final twilight years of the formidable...
Joker Review
Phillips and Phoenix deliver a shattering and fresh new take on an age-old character, a character study of the birth of the supervillain with darkly disturbing vigour. “Put on a Happy Face” is the war cry for the invisible, the ones suffering from depression and the lonely outcasts of society who are simply classed as that just for being a...
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies Review
With the school holidays forced upon stressed-out parents, there truly is no better movie to bond over with your little darlings. Teen Titans Go! To The Movies – a feature-length movie spawned from the animated Cartoon Network series – is naturally silliness personified which instantly connects with both adults and the kids it’s aimed at. An active part of the cinematic DC universe, this is one route that finally works its fun magic.Whilst the rest of the DC superhero...
One Night in Miami Review – London Film Festival 2020
Regina King makes her directorial debut with the latest in great black cinema, an adaptation of Kemp Powers' 2013 play marking a pivotal night in 1964. Lead by an eloquently laden dialogue-heavy storyline, its mere presence of its four leading men is nothing but mesmerizingly captivating.Set mainly in a hotel room after Cassius Clay aka Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree)...
The Hard Stop Review
Back in 2011, the young life of Mark Duggan was taken at the hands of the police after a Hard Stop on the London roads of Tottenham, North London. This killing caused one of the biggest riots in British History fuelled by racist tension which dates back to at least 1985 after PC Blakelock was murdered on the Broadwater...
Green Book Review
A charming road trip which is truly affecting. Farrelly's has delivered a touchingly tender bromance story in the face of adversity. Controversies aside, Peter Farrelly's latest is not quite the hard-hitting film you would expect from a based on a real-life story set amongst the racial tensions of 60’s America. Instead, he uses this opportunity to offer a feel-good drama...
Thor: Ragnarok Review
It’s been four years since the burly Norse god and friends last graced our screens, with a complete change in direction in a choice of a director with Hunt for the Wilderpeople’s Taika Waititi taking the helm, an air of anticipation arose how the third in the saga would pan out. Fear not, Waititi and his slapstick sense of...
Sorry We Missed You Review
Ken Loach is back on his socialist horse three years after I, Daniel Blake hit right at the heart of austerity Britain. Once again he shouts loud for the working class grafters hit hard by poverty, trying to earn a living in a battered and divided country with relentless passion.The story focuses on one young family in a docu-soap...
BlacKkklansman Review
Renowned filmmaker, Spike Lee is back with full force. Never one to shy away from racial issues, Lee tackles a watered-down true story of Ron Stallworth, the African American detective who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 70’s with Blackklansman. Falling fiercely at an appropriate time where open racism is undoubtedly on the rise, it’s a timely reminder that civilisation really hasn’t evolved from its blind stupidity.Infused with comedy and sometimes questionable actions of the US...
Uncle Frank Review
A drama full of mental turmoil, whilst having a bucket load of charm, threatened to drown in a subject just tad water-downed for mainstream audiences. Paul Bettany gets to flex his non-marvel acting chops in a coming-out drama during a time where anything other than heterosexuality in certain US states was more than frowned upon.Told via the narrative of Sophia...
The BFG Review
Nostalgia reigns in Stephen Spielberg’s film adaptation of the much loved writings of Roald Dahl. The BFG will connect not only with its younger audience but mostly with the parents who grew up with Dahl’s 1982 offering. Staying true to The BFG’s origin’s, Spielberg has created a film with magical wonder and tender grace which becomes a visual spectacle for...
Boy Erased Review
Joel Edgerton delivers a wake-up call to those blinded by their faith with a gentle gut-punch. The second film within 6 months to address gay conversion therapy, the first being The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Joel Edgerton’s Boy Erased is his next step into his filmmaking career. It’s a film where its focus lays on the misguided beliefs of Christian parents...
All the Money in the World Review
If you are not already aware of Ridley Scott’s, based on a true story, All The Money in the World about the kidnapping of Oil Tycoon and Billionaire J.P. Getty’s grandson, have you been living under a rock? When news emerged of the original leading man, Kevin Spacey’s sexual harassment allegations, Scott quickly went to work on erasing all traces of Spacey from the movie. Recasting the role of J.P. Getty with the veteran actor,...
Doctor Sleep Review
Stands on its own merits with a balancing act that stays faithful to the madness of The Shining but injects an air of horror mastery. Almost 40 years after Stanley Kubrick gave us his adaptation of Stephen King novel The Shining, filmmaker Mike Flanagan unleashes his sequel to the much–loved classic with Doctor Sleep. Apprehension and expectation lay heavy amongst...
First Man Review
Filmmaker, Damien Chazelle’s last three films have been nothing short of glorious. The man behind the frenzied drumming sensation of Whiplash, and most recently the dancing delight of La La Land, teams up again with his leading man Ryan Gosling. Together they deliver a visually stunning, stoic and sobering biopic on Neil Armstrong. This isn’t all spacewalks and moon...
Wonder Woman 1984 Review
Never have we needed a blockbuster as much as we do right now in 2020!, Something big, bold and bloody explosive to break up the monotony some of us have had to sit through. There really is nothing like switching off with a big bag of popcorn and delving into the make-believe worlds that superheroes give us and hats...