First-time director Yann Demange’s historical drama ‘71, about a British soldier abandoned behind enemy lines in sectarian Belfast at the start of the Troubles, received nine nominations at the British Independent Film Awards. Unlike James Sheridan’s In The Name Of The Father and Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes The Barley, ‘71 doesn’t focus on whole families being torn…
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The name Danny Fields may not mean much to some people but to those in the know he is “The coolest man in the room”, a number one fan and groupie and even the “Mayor of New York City”. The man seems to have seen and done it all in music, having fully immersed himself…
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Like every genre of storytelling on the big and small screens, LGBT narratives are not without their cliches. Unfortunately, the strongest trope in queer media seems to misfortune – whether it’s bullying, unrequited love, parental disapproval or greater tragedies. But All About E seems determined to shatter every preconceived idea about both the stories of…
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It’s not about her. At least, that’s the mantra that Hannah’s repeating to anyone and everyone about the recent revelation that her father has come out as a proud gay man. Tad (guest star Peter Scolari) is spending time in New York to see Hannah, and also to learn from his new Obi-Wan: Elijah. Elijah takes Tad out…
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Underneath what we see in our daily browsing – our emails, Facebook, people’s banal commentary on Twitter – is something called the dark web. It’s like looking under the hood of a car – a mind bogglingly immense and completely unseen part of the Internet that is mostly made up of lines of HTML code….
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They say the eyes are like a window to the soul. And the story of Big Eyes and specifically artist, Margaret Keane would show one sad and sinister tale. The latest film by director, Tim Burton (a Keane fan) throws his familiar clutch and styles away to instead present a biopic that is rich, honest…
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To the untrained eye, Petting Zoo presents itself as your typical coming-of-age story told through the perspective of a pregnant teenager – a trope that has been documented countless times in today’s cinema. However, this film explores the issue of teenage pregnancy through an impoverished Texan youth, delivering a perspective that is separated entirely from…
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Chris Rock has always been a clever comedian, but one should never doubt his flair for a bit of dramatic acting. For those who remember him as Pookie from the classic New Jack City, Rock has always been able to bring depth to his characters, masked by his always animated persona. It’s these acting chops…
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One thing The Walking Dead has never been particularly good at is juggling such a big ensemble cast, which is why the tail end of Season 4 remains some of the show’s finest hours since the first season. This is why we catch up with one character and really flesh them out, and then watch…
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New Netflix original series Bloodline already has the benefit of a supreme cast, with the likes of Kyle Chandler, Sissy Spacek, and Ben Mendelsohn. All have proven their proficiency in high stake, dramatic roles, particularly Chandler, who is still remembered and adored for his lead role in sports drama Friday Night Lights. With a strong…
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“Remember” was an episode which could have easily fell flat, taking us away from the hardened, terrifying road and finally exploring the Alexandria Safe Zone – a big, significant location in the source material. There was no falling here though, as the writers and episode director Channing Powell – who handled Season 4’s brilliant “Internment”…
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It’s evident from the first scene in “Close Up” that Adam hasn’t been with someone like Mimi-Rose Howard before. He cooks her brunch in her expansive loft apartment, tucking her in as she sleeps that little bit longer than him. She’s successful, self-assured, independent and not needy in the slightest – in short, Mimi-Rose is the complete opposite…
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Rick and his group have come a very long way since they abandoned their temporary digs at the prison; everything since then has been dark – very dark. Loss, mistrust, and tension have plagued the group every step of the way and we have watched as these characters that have been developed so well, that…
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At first glance, “Sit-In” looks like another classic Hannah Horvath temper tantrum. The difference here is that at the end of it Hannah gets up, packs her bags, and leaves Adam for good. I’d call that progress, wouldn’t you? Well, in the context of Hannah, that is. If I had returned from a month in…
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Upon reflection, our girls showed a lot of personal growth in “Cubbies”. With Jessa being somewhat of a no-show this week, the spotlight was on Shoshanna, Marnie and Hannah, and the positive and, dare I say it, adult choices that they’ve made. The results of these choices may not be evident just yet, but these…
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AMC’s The Walking Dead returned from their traditional mid-season break with a strong episode, refreshing a season that was dangerously edging towards dull territory with an unappealing cop arc. With the slate relatively clean, The show’s writers are now free to re-build their characters and have them open up to each other more, revealing their…
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Aussie siblings Kiah and Tristan Roache-Turner put themselves forward as highly competent creatives with outback horror film Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead, delivering a no-bullshit, slightly satirical, zombie film that is speedily climbing it’s genre, standing upon the pile of dead or decaying carbon-copies while heralding something unique and supremely entertaining. Kiah directed and Tristan…
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Upon reflection, “No More Mr. Noishe Guy” was actually a massive game-changer. Not only did we lose perhaps the best supporting character, but something happened at the end to switch everything up and change the course of the show in a way that I really didn’t think would happen until the end of this season….
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In 1968, Martin Luther King, a pastor, humanitarian and African-American civil rights activist, was shot dead in Memphis, Tennessee whilst organising a peace protest. He was 39 years old. Four years prior in 1965, King led 600 people through Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama in a mass protest to secure the rights for African Americans…
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From Academy Award winning director James Marsh (Man on Wire) comes the much anticipated film based on the Jane Hawking’s memoir My Life with Stephen, the story of world renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking, as seen through the eyes and experiences of his ex-wife. Much of Hawking’s story is well known – a…
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You’ve probably heard or read some of the reviews for Foxcatcher already, and possibly seen the slew of award nominations it and along with its cast have been receiving recently. To say that this film warrants the accolades is fair, because for once a movie based on a true story manages to deliver not only…
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Boardwalk Empire has always been one of the few series on television that approaches the element of surprise from an artistic standpoint. The Emmy winning show played this hand very strongly throughout it’s five-season run, taking it from just a super stylish, superbly curated gangster period drama to something much, much more and memorable than…
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Director Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club) is back for another awards season with part travelogue, part grief memoir, Wild. The film stars Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed (seems highly coincidental, but that is her real last name), who undertakes the personal challenge of hiking solo, 1,100 miles along the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to…
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Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and Shoshanna have never really been particularly likeable characters. They’re insecure, self-obsessed, naïve, entitled, rude, and often deluded about their own lives. Why, then, do I keep coming back, season after season, to keep watching their misadventures? The answer to this question has eluded me ever since I first started disliking Girls…
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WARNING: This review contains spoilers. “Hitler….Hitler…” was the name on the roll call rather than Bueller for this episode of Danger 5, which had the super team undercover at an American high school. Hitler’s disguise this time is a letterman jacket-wearing jock, who hopes to find a date and be crowned the King of Christmas…
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The new Disney animated film Big Hero 6 – released in cinemas today – is the anticipated effort from directors Don Hall and Chris Williams, inspired by an obscure Marvel comic of the same name. Though Marvel were not involved in the film directly, a cameo from a certain Marvel patriarch keeps at least one…
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Initially, St. Vincent may seem like a rather bland story, and it’s far from the most original idea. Take a grumpy, cynical aging man who lives on his own and gradually dig into his heart by way of teaming him up with the endearing 10 year old boy who he is roped into babysitting. A…
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In this dramatic thriller biopic The Imitation Game examines the life of Alan Turing, an English mathematician and logician who along with his team of code-breakers, crack the German Enigma code and helped the Allies win World War II. The film examines the parallels of Turing’s personal and early life and how it shaped him…
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The Making of Boyhood is a ten-minute feature about the film of the same name that was written, produced and directed by Richard Linklater (Dazed & Confused, School of Rock). Boyhood is a film that was 12 years in the making and is partly fictional and partly autobiographical. It’s also one that could be renamed…
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The last major film Keanu Reeves starred in was the abysmal 47 Ronin, a project which took Keanu out of his element and demanded from him more than he could actually give. David Leitch and Chad Stahelski’s John Wick is an entirely different story, playing to Reeves’ strengths and giving him his best role in…
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