Resetting

We sit here tonight almost two years after my previous post on this blog. Honestly it feels longer. I look back upon this site now with mixed feelings, as something that had lost its appeal for me some time before I stopped trying to maintain it. Never intended as a thing I would take overly …

Best Films of 2020

With cinemas spending much of their time closed across the UK and worldwide in 2020, you could be forgiven for thinking this year was as terrible for film as it has been for many other businesses. To a large extent you'd be right; cinemas have lost millions in potential profit and some will not survive, …

Review: Tenet

Like quite a few other people, I had one major issue with Tenet on first viewing: sound mixing. Almost missing dialogue that is seemingly important and otherwise delivered well by great actors because it is drowned out by other noises on screen. Since Bane's memorable appearance in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Christopher Nolan seems …

Christopher Nolan retrospective and rankings

With Christopher Nolan's eagerly awaited Tenet releasing in the UK this week, no eager writer about film would want to pass up the opportunity for a good old director spotlight and ranking of movies. As much as it's arbitrary and subjective, it's still a fun task to partake in. To clarify, before anyone is shocked …

Best Films of the 2010s

You know how, during times of crisis, there are some who say we shouldn't care about things like films and video games so much because in the larger context of what's happening in society they don't really matter? Screw those people. Their idea of a pleasant evening is probably "spending time with the family" before …

Looking forward to Final Fantasy VII Remake

A fair amount of people who are eager to play the much anticipated remake of Final Fantasy VII, due out officially this Friday (though some have already received physical copies after Square Enix shipped them early due to current circulation concerns), are those whose first experience with the original game came more than 20 years …

DIFF 2020: Saint Maud, Martin Eden

Heads up; this is the second and final part of my updates from DIFF 2020, as I only saw four films there this year. Hopefully I'll return next year for a longer trip, assuming humanity hasn't been wiped out by some weird super-virus before then. Of the selection, British horror Saint Maud and Italian film …

DIFF 2020: Spring Tide, Mickey and the Bear

It's that time of year again when certain lower profile film festivals take centre stage, and as an Irish native the Dublin International Film Festival is a more accessible option for me than most. Usually the last weekend in February would also coincide with the Oscars, but obviously there was a shorter awards season this …

Review: The Last Thing He Wanted

Director Dee Rees found herself in the middle of a perfect storm in the aftermath of her previous film’s release. 2017’s Mudbound was nominated for multiple Academy Awards recognising its adapted screenplay and cinematography among others, following a lauded premiere at Sundance that made it one of the most talked about movies of that year. …

Oscars 2020 and Parasite

Often it's the Academy Awards that cool my passion for movies around this time of year, but 2019/20 has been a little different. After the train wreck that was The Rise of Skywalker in December, I struggled to stay enthusiastic for any film-related news or releases (partly because I'd already seen great films like The …