Tag Archives: Black Comedy
Review: Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
The run of great 2016 indie films continues. Light and shade are so key in telling compelling stories, and Taika Waititi’s impressively domestic and enjoyable latest offering is hard-hitting and hilarious. Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) arrives at the home of … Continue reading
Review: Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Another day, another Western. America’s favourite film genre just keeps on going, but as long as they’re as vivid and interesting as BONE TOMAHAWK you don’t tend to mind. When a young woman is kidnapped by cannibalistic raiders, a ragtag … Continue reading
Review: Adult Life Skills (2016)
I forewarn you that this one might be an uncomfortable watch for any adult in a difficult transition period, especially if they’re watching it with their parents and especially especially if they still live with them. ADULT LIFE SKILLS is … Continue reading
Review: The Fundamentals of Caring (2016)
I really want movies like this to do well. It’s great that Netflix is democratising filmmaking, allowing for talent and Adam Sandler to find an audience and bypass the Hollywood system. Of course not all of it can be gold, … Continue reading
Review: The Lobster (2015)
Well file this one comfortably (or uncomfortably) under “flawed but fascinating”. THE LOBSTER is a symphony to loneliness, an essay to alienation. It constructs a bizarre and jarring world inhabited by the miserable and the hollow, then asks you to … Continue reading
Review: The Nice Guys (2016)
Watch THE NICE GUYS for a wonderfully shambolic Ryan Gosling teaming up with Russell Crowe playing a tank in a leather jacket. Remember it for Shane Black’s unique and sharply self-aware take on film noir. Black has been Hollywood’s go-to … Continue reading
20 Years On: Trainspotting (1996)
It’s that time again: enough sand has passed through the hourglass of eternity to discuss another classic in retrospective fashion. This week marks the 20th Anniversary of TRAINSPOTTING, Danny Boyle’s striking adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s game-changing novel about Edinburgh heroin … Continue reading
Review: Slow West (2015)
SLOW WEST is a bit of a stunner. It’s been an interesting few years for the Western, with few traditional examples but plenty of sideways looks and genre hybrids making noise and proving there’s still life in this (very) old … Continue reading
Review: Deadpool (2016)
DEADPOOL is exactly what it should be. It’s not big (by superhero standards) and it’s not clever but it’s lewd, violent and supremely self-aware, just like its titular scarlet-clad antihero. Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) makes a dishonest living as a … Continue reading
SSP Thinks Film 