Category Archives: Film

Ghost In The Machine, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbæk, Takeshi Kitano, Juliette Binoche, Michael Pitt, Chin Han, Danusia Samal, Lasarus Ratuere, Yutaka Izumihara, Tawanda Manyimo, Peter Ferdinando, Anamaria Marinca.

There are many moments that don’t live up to their hype, that sink below the horizon quicker than the sun in an Arctic winter and become more unpalatable than a road side dinner that has been recently squashed under the tyres of an articulated lorry. No matter how good they seem as a two minute tease, the truth is they soon lose their passion and the average person soon finds themselves bored, whilst the cinematic lover suddenly finds a reason to flick through the mental notes to never see the film again.

Free Fire, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Enzo Cilenti, Sam Riley, Michael Smiley, Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Armie Hammer, Sharlto Copley, Babou Ceesay, Noah Taylor, Jack Reynor, Mark Monero, Patrick Bergin, Sara Dee, Tom Davis.

A film in which so much happens in the space of 90 minutes can either leave you so breathless that it will make you forget most of what has transpired on screen or reeling from the shock of it all that it stays with you forever; imprinted into your mind like a seared brand and smouldering long into the memory. These are the films that you want to see again because you know deep down that in between each involuntary blink, you missed so much, so much reference to the greatness that has unfolded; these are the films to absolutely love and defend to the death.

The Lost City Of Z, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Harry Melling, Franco Nero, Ian McDiarmid, Angus Macfadyen, Daniel Huttlestone, Aleksander Joyanovic, Murray Melvin, Edward Ashley, Nicholas Grace, Raquel Arraes, Bobby Smalldridge, Nicholas Agnew, Frank Clem, Michael Ford-Fitzgerald, Johann Myers, Michael Jenn, Frank Cannon, John Sackville, Tom Mulheron, Adam Bellamy, Matthew Sunderland, Stacy Shane, Richard Buck, Siennah Buck, Barnaby Edwards, Brian Matthews Murphy, Bethan Coomber, Andrew McNeill, Tasmin Greene Barker, Michael McLaughlin.

Life, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Olga Dihovichnaya, Ariyon Bakare, Hiroyuki Sanada, Naoko Mori, Alexandre Nguyen, Camiel Warren-Taylor, Hiu Woong-Sin.

It has been mooted, suggested beyond all possible doubt in some quarters, that there simply are no new ideas out there, that everything is basically a re-hash, a do-over, a chance for art to keep repeating itself over and over again. Whilst this may be in some cases a false premise, that the world will always find an interesting new angle in which to demonstrate the greatest of humanity’s crowning glory, imagination, in many ways the doom laden soothers are right, there is nothing new under the sun and by poking at the impossible creature, we are not exactly creating new Life, we are sucking the soul out of it.

CHiPs, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Michael Peña, Dax Shepard, Jessica McNamee, Adam Brody, Ryan Hansen, Justin Chatwin, Kirsten Bell, Vincent D’Onofrio, Rosa Salazar, Maya Rudolph, Adam Rodriguez, Richard T. Jones, Ben Falcone, Jane Kacmarek, Angelique Kenney, Vida Guerra, Mara Marini, Isaiah Whitlock Jr, Kelly Richardson, Jackie Tohn, Arturo del Puerto, Katie McCabe, April Martucci, Carly Hatter, Erik Estrada.

Get Out, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Marcus Henderson, Betty Gabriel, Lakeith Stanfield, Stephen Root, Lil Rel Howery, Ashley LeConte Campbell, John Wilmot, Julie Ann Doan, Rutherford Cravens, Geraldine Singer, Jeronimo Spinx, Ian Casselberry, Trey Burvant, Richard Herd, Erika Alexander, Yasuhiko Oyama.

A man enters a world that is as strange as it is uncomfortable, one where alienation is dressed up in smiles, style and a welcoming handshake, this is the experience of many around the world, the stranger in a strange land, not one to fit in, but one whose very existence is deemed to be a boost to the community in a very different way than may have been expected.

Elle, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling, Virginie Efira, Judith Magre, Christian Berkel, Jonas Bloquet, Alice Isazz, Vimala Pons, Raphaël Lenglet, Arthur Mazet, Lucas Priso, Hugo Conzelmann, Stéphane Bak.

 

French cinema has always been the most infuriating beast, some will argue that at times it could be seen as pretentious, a place in which art goes too far and the sophistication plays more of a part than the actual plot; to those that never see beyond the screen that is possibly an argument worth having and yet the many layers that come to the front to be counted go way beyond that initially encountered and certainly in the last decade at least the films have become powerful statements on today’s society.

Kong: Skull Island, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John C. Reilly, John Goodman, Corey Hawkins, John Ortiz, Tian Jing, Toby Kebbell, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, Thomas Mann, Eugene Cordero, Marc Evan Jackson, Will Britain, Miyayi, Richard Jenkins, Allyn Rachel, Robert Taylor, James M. Connor, Thomas Middleditch, Brady Novak.

 

Logan, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Richard E. Grant, Eriq La Salle, Elise Neal, Quincy Fouse.

It is sometimes logical than the final instalment of any story is the one that makes you understand just how much you love the character that you have seen grow, that their life’s conclusion is paramount to everything that has happened before; it is only in the last blink towards the eternal camera that you realise just exactly they have brought to the world.

Certain Women, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, Kristin Stewart, Lily Gladstone, James Le Gros, Jared Harris, Rene Auberjonis, Ashlie Atkinson, Guy Boyd, Edelen McWilliams, John Getz, James Jordan, Matt McTighe, Joshua T. Fonkalafi, Sara Rodier, Stephanie Campbell, Kilty Reidy, Marceline Hugot, Zena Dell Lowe, Kory Gunderson.

There is always a high expectation when it comes to some films, the anticipation in which well documented narrative might offer a new direction of thought in appreciation in how others live, how to see the world through the eyes of another might produce some much needed empathy in a world dominated by the fast, the furious and the often extraordinary; it is always a hope, one sometimes fulfilled, yet sadly, not many revelations are to gleaned in Certain Women.