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Tag Archives: Black Comedy
60s Review: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
When author Terry Pratchett wrote about his time working as a publicist for a nuclear plant, he described how he came to realise that there’s no funnier phrase than “two completely independent failsafe systems”. The extent to which everything goes … Continue reading
Posted in Classic Film, Film, Film Review
Tagged Black Comedy, Classic Film, Dr Strangelove, George C Scott, Peter Sellers, Satire, Stanley Kubrick, Sterling Hayden, Terry Pratchett, Tracy Reed
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Review in Brief: Paddleton (2019)
“An oncologist…that’s the cancer one?” Yes, PADDLETON is a “cancer movie”. It’s also an indie road movie involving two guys struggling to articulate their feelings. But I don’t think all that many of either look at both sides of terminal … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Black Comedy, Creep, Humpday, Mark Duplass, Paddleton, Ray Romano, Road Movie, Safety Not Guaranteed, The Big Sick
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Review: The Favourite (2018)
Queen Anne is a British monarch often overlooked, dismissed, forgotten. I’m into my history and I would have struggled to tell you much about her reign before watching THE FAVOURITE. The film isn’t a history lesson, that’s not what writer-director … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Biopic, Black Comedy, Drama, Emma Stone, Ex Machina, Historical Drama, Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, The Favourite, The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos
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Review in Brief: Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (2018)
The only implausible thing about Ben Wheatley’s latest jet-black dramedy is that any family would willingly submit to everyone being in the same location at the same time for anything other than a wedding or a funeral. We are sent … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Thoroughbreds (2017/18)
THOROUGHBREDS is made in its script. It’s deliciously dark and full of wittily pragmatic musings on humanity like “I have a perfectly healthy brain, it just doesn’t contain feelings”, and “The sawdust smells fantastic, but you’re still in a hamster … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Anton Yelchin, Anya Taylor-Joy, Black Comedy, Cory Finley, Olivia Cooke, Thoroughbreds
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Review in Brief: An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018)
I never did review THE GREASY STRANGLER. I’m not even sure I could. I think I might struggle to talk about AN EVENING WITH BEVERLY LUFF LINN as well. Jim Hosking’s follow-up is populated by similarly freakish characters and a … Continue reading
Review: Private Life (2018)
This review contains spoilers for PRIVATE LIFE. Netflix are having a pretty stellar year of original content. I mean, the bad stuff is still pretty bad, but the good stuff is really good and often takes you by surprise. I … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Black Comedy, Drama, Kathryn Hahn, Kayli Carter, Netflix, Paul Giamatti, Private Life, Tamara Jenkins
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Review in Brief: Errementari (2017/18)
ERREMENTARI is a little gothic gem. It feels like what would happen if Guillermo del Toro remade one of James Whale’s darker Universal Horror films. “Errementari” is Basque for blacksmith, so appropriately this tells the tale of a village blacksmith … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Black Comedy, Errementari, Guillermo del Toro, Horror, James Whale, Kandigo Uranga, Uma Bracaglia, World Cinema
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Review: A Simple Favour (2018)
A SIMPLE FAVOUR is certainly something. I like going into a film without the faintest idea of what to expect and still having a really good time (GAME NIGHT was the other one of those for me this year). Paul … Continue reading
50s Review: Rear Window (1954)
Alfred Hitchcock loved screwing with his audience. From the many Macguffins scattered throughout his works to killing off protagonists halfway through and making us doubt our own perceptions, he used pretty much every twist and trick in a skilled director’s … Continue reading
