Category Archives: Film

Me And Earl And The Dying Girl, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler, Olivia Cooke, Nick Offerman, Connie Britton, Molly Shannon, Jon Bernthal, Katherine C. Hughes, Matt Bennett, Masam Holden, Bobb’e J. Thompson, Gavin Dietz, Edward DeBruce III, Natalie Marchelletta, Chelsea Zhang, Marco Zappela, Kaza Marie Ayersman, Etta Cox, Karriem Sami, Hugh Jackman.

Coming of age films can leave a bitter feeling in the mouth, not through the quality of the film but in how they are perceived to make older audiences feel.

Me And Earl And The Dying Girl, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(560 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori, Kiersey Clemons, Blake Anderson, Rakim Mayers, Kimberly Elise, Chanel Iman, Roger Guenveur Smith, Forest Whitaker, Rick Fox, Bruce Beatty.

Pre-conceptions of someone’s abilities or life is perhaps arguably one of the worst ways in which to underestimate them or even under value them as human beings. It is prejudice by any other name and a bias that can have startling consequences when they turn and bite you where the sun refuses to shine.

Dope, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(455 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Best Of Enemies, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

In an age of political pygmies and silent observers often too scared to say the wrong thing in case it hurts in the popularity stakes, to look back upon the series of debates which overshadowed the Republican and Democratic conventions of 1968 is to step into another world.

Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon’s Best of Enemies is one of those documentaries that comes out of nowhere but delights the political beast inside from the first reels and stays to conquer with its juicy commentary and ravishing pay off; it is a documentary that many might shy away from but it is to their detriment that they do so.

Best Of Enemies, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(540 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

The Wolfpack, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Everybody has a right to have their story told, if not how do we learn to accept other points of view and then debate them with clarity and insightfulness. It is the rise of the documentary in the modern age that lifts a lid onto how others were raised so that we might glean how the adult turns out and how they have been influenced by their surroundings.

The Wolfpack, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool. full post

(402 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

45 Years, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtney, Dolly Wells, Geraldine James, Richard Cunningham, Hannah Chalmers, David Sibley, Sam Alexander, Max Rudd, Michelle Finch, Camille Ucan, Kevin Matadeen, Paul Goldsmith, Charles Booth, Peter Dean Jackson, Lucy Temple, Richard Banham, Ellie Tivey, Martin Atkinson.

 

The idyllic nature of a good marriage can be measured in not just years but how these years came about. To reach any number of years with stories and comfort is one thing but when it can be undermined by a figure from the past, one long unthought-of, the presence of them can be un-nerving, even after 45 Years.

45 Years, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(406 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Straight Outta Compton, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10

Cast: O’ Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr., Aldis Hodge, Marlon Yates Jr., R. Marcos Taylor, Carra Patterson, Alexandra Shipp, Paul Giamatti, Elena Goode, Keith Powers, Joshua Brockington, Sheldon A. Smith, Keith Stanfield, Cleavon McClendon.

 

Regardless of what you feel about Rap/Hip-Hop or any of the divisions contained therein, Straight Outta Compton is one of the most brutal, interesting and creative films of the year. A film which for which many might find uncomfortable viewing, some perhaps even painfully so, but it is the flesh that is opened up, the topics of discussion which have un-nerving parallels with American society today which makes it a must see film.

Straight Outta Compton, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

(578 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

Gemma Bovery, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Fabrice Luchini, Gemma Arterton, Jason Flemyng, Isabelle Candelier, Niels Schneider, Mel Raido, Elsa Zylberstein, Pip Torrens, Kacey Mottet Klein, Edith Scob, Philippe Uchan, Pascale Arbillot, Marie-Bénédicte Roy, Christian Sinniger, Pierre Alloggia, Patrice Le Mehauté, Gaspard Beaucarne, Marianne Viville.

An obsession with books is not a bad thing, in fact it nearly always leads to enlightenment and knowledge; sometimes though it can lead to living the life of the modern day and the real as if you conducting a performance, especially when people you know exhibit all the signs of a classic book.

Gemma Bovery, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool. full post

(414 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Tilda Swinton, LeBron James, Daniel Radcliffe, Marissa Tomei, Vanessa Bayer, Brie Larson, Evan Brinkman, Mike Birbiglia, Norman Lloyd, Keith Robinson, Marina Franklin, John Cena, Randall Park, John Glaser, Colin Quinn, Dan Soder,  Devin Fabry, Carla Oudin, Dave Attell, Ezra Miller, Matthew Broderick, Marv Albert, Chris Evert.

Trainwreck, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(448 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

The Man From U.N.C.L.E, Film Review. Plaza Cinema, Waterloo.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki, Luca Calvani, Hugh Grant, Sylvester Groth, Jared Harris, Christian Berkel, Misha Kuznetsov, Guy Williams, Marianna Di Matino, Simona Caparrini.

It’s almost impossible to dislike what Guy Ritchie brings to the world of film, he is at times the epitome of what great British cinema should be viewed as and his latest venture, a suave and sophisticated remake of the classic 1960s television programme The Man From U.N.C.L.E, is up there with RockNRolla, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and the excellent Robert Downey Jnr. versions of Sherlock Holmes in terms of high pace, intelligent, creative independence and stylish cinema.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E, Film Review. Plaza Cinema, Waterloo. full post

(485 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Pixels, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 3/10

Cast: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad, Matt Lintz, Brian Cox, Sean Bean, Jane Krakowski, Dan Aykroyd, Affion Crockett, Lainie Kazan, Ashley Benson, Denis Akiyama, Tom McCarthy.

It is funny how often you can be suckered into watching a film in which you know is going to give you the most amazing premise but somehow has less chance of delivering upon the promise of good times and stomach aching laughter than a President being so well adored that the American voters would allow them any indiscretion going. They wouldn’t even clamour for their impeachment if they were caught in bed playing an out of tune flute whilst whispering sweet nothings to the Russian Ambassador as they talked of handing back Sarah Palin and the state of Alaska back to Moscow.

Pixels, Film Review. full post

(470 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)