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Author Archives: Sam Sewell-Peterson
Review in Brief: Elle (2016)
ELLE is like the darkest soap opera you’ve ever seen. You get all the extra-marital affairs and mummy and daddy issues you might expect from nightly soft drama telly of the like of EAST ENDERS, but it also subjects us … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Black Comedy, Drama, East Enders, Elle, Gaspar Noé, Isabelle Huppert, Lars von Trier, Paul Verhoeven, Soap Opera
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Review: Get Out (2017)
You might have an idea of the general direction GET OUT is heading in, but few will guess how far down this deep and murky thematic rabbit hole writer-director Jordan Peele will take us. This is a horror film for … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Sing (2016)
SING is a pleasant surprise. It may be a clichéd underdog/competition story retold with singing animals, but it’s got a lot of pep and ends up being the most soulful and best-realised animations Illumination have produced so far. The characters are … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Animation, Elton John, Garth Jennings, Illumination, Musical, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Sing, Taron Egerton
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Review: Boy (2010)
Handled delicately, grief makes for a great film. Boiling Taika Waititi’s films down to their core themes, if EAGLE VS. SHARK was about battling depression and HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE was about finding a place to truly belong, then BOY … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Black Comedy, Boy, Drama, Eagle vs Shark, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, James Rollerston, Michael Jackson, Taika Waititi, Thor: Ragnarok
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Review in Brief: Kong: Skull Island (2017)
KONG: SKULL ISLAND is what it is, and what it is is a big, dumb monster brawl. The just-post-Vietnam War setting is just window dressing to the standard, laboured story setup. While the creatures are impressively realised, clearly nobody has … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Blockbuster, Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, Monster Movie
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Review: Dunkirk (2017)
Some directors just need to get a film out of their systems. For Steven Spielberg it was SCHINDLER’S LIST, for Christopher Nolan it is surely DUNKIRK. The French coastline, May 1940. With the Allied army surrounded and with the sea … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Prevenge (2016/17)
We’ve had plenty of schizophrenic serial killer movies, but PREVENGE must be the first where the voice telling the perpetrator to kill is her unborn child. Our antihero is utterly miserable in her pregnancy, so turns to killing and maiming, … Continue reading
Review in Brief: The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)
There are surprisingly few horror movies set in morgues. Plenty with morgue scenes, but a scarcity that really make the most of that cold dread atmosphere for an extended duration. What they do with a few key simple sounds and … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged André Øverdal, Horror, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Troll Hunter
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Review in Brief: Elvis & Nixon (2016)
ELVIS & NIXON is an intriguingly simple title and unfortunately, a pretty disappointing final product. In the depiction of this remarkable partly true, partly hypothetical series of real-world events, Kevin Spacey makes for a good Nixon. He’s slimy and calculating … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Alex Petyfer, Biopic, Elvis & Nixon, Kevin Spacey, Michael Shannon
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Review: War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
The new Apes movies, up to and including WAR OF THE PLANET OF THE APES are pretty special. They’re respectful of what has come before in the franchise, but not afraid to reinvent it. They want to be far-reaching conceptually, … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Andy Serkis, Clint Eastwood, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Jerry Goldsmith, Matt Reeves, Michael Giacchino, Planet of the Apes, Steve Zahn, Unforgiven, War for the Planet of the Apes, Woody Harrelson, Zero Dark Thirty
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