La La Land is the new film from offensively talented director Damien Chazelle, who last impressed with the Oscar winning film Whiplash, a story (in part) about the search for musical perfection in a young Jazz drummer. In La La Land, we remain in a musical world, as Chazelle takes us back to the classic Hollywood…
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Holy fan service Batman! What an episode! After a weeks break the streak continues as the second season of Ash vs Evil Dead continues to churn out a host of stellar episodes. But none of them are quite as special as this one. The crew return but are unfortunately much more disheveled than when we…
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I was under the impression that Ash vs Evil Dead had reached it’s peak. That episodes like the last two and season one’s finale and Killer of Killers couldn’t be topped. After all, a goofy horror/comedy genre mash-up probably has no right to strive for anything brilliant. Right. Right? No. Ashy Slashy now holds the crown as…
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With Baal now risen and and Pablo apparently holding the key to stopping him, Ash vs Evil Dead is getting pretty tense. And Trapped Inside is an action packed episode filled with a tonne of violence and homages that will please Evil Dead fans. The crew head back to Ash’s place again to make good…
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I remember writing a review for a season one episode of Ash vs Evil Dead that started with “well that was different”. The final verdict was that it was the first mediocre episode of the series. Delusion also goes through a vicissitude, breaking the norm and presenting something totally different to what we have expected. Only this…
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Better known as one of the world’s greatest fashion designers, Tom Ford proves himself every inch the competent filmmaker with Nocturnal Animals. Verifying his debut feature A Single Man was no flash in the pan either, Ford juxtaposes a relationship drama feature with a violent revenge tale in such an effortless fashion you’d swear you…
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South Korean Director Jee-woon Kim’s film credits comprise an impressive catalogue of thrilling action films. His balls to the wall 2005 film A Bittersweet Life is still one of my favourite action movies; he’s payed homage to Sergio Leonne with The Good, The Bad, The Weird and in 2013 he teamed with Arnold Schwarzenegger for his…
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Seemingly about the fun, bizarre world of an adult sub-culture called ‘Competitive Endurance Tickling’, comes a documentary that takes fast steps sideways, trips down some steep, morbidly dark stairs and leads viewers into the world of abuse, identity theft and cyber bullying. Like so many great documentaries before it, you walk away from Tickled wanting…
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Dubbed the “spiritual predecessor” to his classic film Dazed and Confused, Richard Linklater’s new film Everybody Wants Some!! takes us from the 70s to the 80s, and from the last days of high school to the first days of college in Texas. Much like in Dazed, we meet a group of young people about to…
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Simply put, Swiss Army Man is a story about how a man, whilst lost and trapped on an island, befriends a seemingly magical corpse in order to find his way back to civilisation. However, this film is far more than that, it’s an examination of a multitude of themes. A comedy, a drama,a tale of friendship…
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It’s quite clear that Benioff and Weiss are unperturbed about Game of Thrones (mostly) surpassing its source material, and so far it has proved to be more of a blessing than a curse. Now with 4 episodes to show, Season Six has been a solid season of surprising, though rapid, developments that leap forward to…
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Season one of Fargo was an unexpected hit. Based on (and eventually connected to) the Coen’s Brothers’ 1996 crime film, it impeccably weaved black comedy, a gripping narrative, interesting characters and quite simply, beautiful cinematography to create a show that was by all accounts universally praised. It would come as no surprise when season two was…
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One of the strongest – and most violent – episodes in this season so far, “JSS”, drew most of it’s strength from Carol. “The Grove”, one of the show’s best episodes to date, drew most of it’s strength from “Carol”. Now, “The Same Boat” re-focuses back on in Melissa McBride’s complex character for another solid…
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Adopting a story that tragically resembles real-life accounts, and presenting an opening 40-or-so minutes that prove an uneasy watch, Room is an initially cold but masterful drama all the same. Describing the film as cold is not a criticism on its part though as director Lenny Abrahamson has displayed such skill in housing the film…
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Sometimes a film comes along that challenges your thinking and opinions and leaves you with an emotional suckerpunch. Spotlight is one of those films where the sum of all of its parts results in a perfect film, a balance between emotional drama, gripping suspense, challenging subject matter and all based on a true story. There…
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You probably already know director Adam McKay from his extensive catalogue of cringe-comedy – Anchorman, Step Brothers, and Talladega Nights, amongst others. The Big Short is the most recent film from McKay, and one that completely redefines the joker perspective that he is often associated with. It’s hilarious, but at its core The Big Short is an intelligent tragedy about the gruelling effects of…
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When I look back on Season 1 of Ash vs Evil Dead, I realise how fantastic the writing has been; how each trivial little plot point has culminated here, in the season finale of this impressive new series. If you’ve followed my reviews over the course of these ten episodes, you may have labelled me bias…
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To celebrate the shiny, sparkly, glittery special DVD release of Broad City Season 1 we decided to revisit the dynamic duo known as Abbi and Ilana. From their interesting methods of transporting drugs to trying to deal your taxes, this show deals with what every 20-something is truly thinking. The DVD gives you all kinds…
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While The Killer of Killers may have served as a pit stop on the road to the seasons inevitable grizzly end, it may well have been the best episode since the pilot. Like many of the best episodes in the season, The Killer of Killers benefits from cramming its narrative and action into one isolated…
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It’s not often that a show so incredibly surprising, ridiculous, and fantastic finds its way onto our screens, but that’s exactly what happened when Jane the Virgin aired in America in late 2014. Equal parts comedy, drama, murder mystery, soap opera, romance, family drama, and coming-of-age, Jane the Virgin has something for everyone, and even…
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Life Story is nothing short of amazing. The incredible nature film starring Sir David Attenborough and produced by the Emmy award-wining team that made Life is an intense ride that is supported by a sensitive soundtrack performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. It conveys a thrilling roller-coaster of emotions, as it chronicles the…
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After last weeks hour length debut of Ash vs Evil Dead, episode 2 has commenced the standard of half an hour episodes going forward. That isn’t to detract from from the show at all. It’s merely a PSA. In fact the show runners of Ash vs Evil Dead have seemingly accepted this a challenge to…
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The Evil Dead trilogy is a god damn institution for me. Not only is the 1981 classic my favourite horror movie, it is also hands down one of my most beloved movies of all time. So imagine my elation when Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell announced that they were bringing their wacky creation to the…
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The fallout from “Thank You” will have to wait for a few weeks while The Walking Dead follow their tried-and-tested formula of breaking apart the present storyline and exploring other paths. Here, the path winds all the way back to the Morgan we saw in Season 3’s stand-out episode “Clear” and fleshes the character out…
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Many gangster movies have come before that have been considered great, The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Untouchables, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and all of these have depicted the highs and lows of the lifestyle. Where Legend differs, by utilising its lead to play both main characters, by taking an American spin on the British…
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Given my past experiences with the horrific disease, I’m one person that finds the deus ex machina of cancer unbearable. It is often done tastelessly, depicting it’s sufferers as people without autonomy or regarded with the self-respect that they deserve – cancer patients are people, not pawns that should be used to explain a protagonist…
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The third season of Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal sees the crime-procedural-turned-art-film bloom into a full-on romance drama – and the results are nothing short of glorious to behold. The season’s opening arc concerns itself with the international manhunt for Hannibal kicked off by the end of Season 2. Later episodes tackle the long-awaited arrival of Francis…
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New in films that unexpectedly leave you completely satisfied and slightly breathless: Victoria, a two-hour, one-shot, action-drama from Director Sebastian Schipper. It’s a film that takes you all over the late-night streets of Berlin as the sun slowly creeps up and the fallout from a chance encounter continues to get more and more intense until…
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Those classed as ‘Hood Films’ really made an impact on commercial cinema back in the 90’s. Classics like Boyz n the Hood, Menace II Society, and Juice were met with critical acclaim and appealed to both a crowd that likes intelligent, well-written cinema rife with thoughtful social commentary, and a crowd that just wants an…
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Over 86 minutes, this chilling documentary details how a (very) small, quiet town in North Dakota slowly transformed into a breeding ground for hatred and paranoia over the course of a few months. It’s easy to watch Welcome to Leith as a highly effective thriller, forgetting that the events going down in the film actually…
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