There was a point when it came to initially reviewing Companion that I was thinking how difficult it would be to navigate around certain plot points, given that Drew Hancock‘s horror-leaning, sci-fi adjacent, romantic thriller bets on a particular narrative reveal. It’s one that I wasn’t dare going to spoil – I had the luck…
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It’s all a little too easy to accuse actor-turned-director Brady Corbet of indulging in his own self given the running time of his third feature The Brutalist; the 215 minute drama following 2015’s The Childhood of a Leader and 2018’s divisive Natalie Portman feature Vox Lux. The length, however, (which also includes a needed 15…
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A more evasive mentality is adhered to in A Complete Unknown and its subject, musician Bob Dylan, than what director James Mangold afforded Johnny Cash in Walk The Line (2005), here, a deliberately distant biopic that dares to keep Dylan as the enigmatic character he is, rather than create anything false and flashy for the…
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We’ve had the pleasure of reviewing several Anker products over the years, including the Anker Prime 250W charger, which is still at my desk, and their 10,000 mAh 30W Power Bank, which I had used up until this particular review. As great as that previous portable charger has been, the MagGo 10K Slim Power Bank…
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It’s been over a decade since we last saw Cameron Diaz grace our screens. Bowing out with a planned retirement from the industry following 2014’s middlingly received musical Annie, Diaz has been lured back to do what she does best, reuniting with Annie cohort Jamie Foxx for Back In Action, a fittingly titled comedic actioner…
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Not to be confused with Denzel Washington’s 2010 runaway train thriller – or the lesser known 2004 outing from Wesley Snipes – Unstoppable, which marks the directorial debut of editor William Goldenberg, whose credits include such titles as Coyote Ugly, Miami Vice and Air, is a by-the-numbers sports drama that lives by its inspirational hook. …
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Similar to how he shifted our expected perspective from predator to prey in 2020’s slick reimagining of The Invisible Man, which layered the tale with a topical #MeToo sheen, Aussie genre helmer Leigh Whannell is, once again, altering the ingredients for what we think a Wolf Man narrative should be. Generational trauma, the uncertain dynamic of a marriage and meditations on…
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Selling itself direct from the off with a title that indicates both the seasonal setting and the supernatural creatures at bay, Monster Summer tries so desperately to align itself with the heavily rotated family-friendly likes of The Goonies, The Sandlot and Hocus Pocus, but its 1990s setting and adventurous personality aren’t able to conjure the…
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Similar to how, in equal measure, the Catholic church is an institution that earns both regard and revile, Conclave, Edward Berger‘s scandalous mystery set within the walls of the Vatican, is, at once, a revealing thriller as much as it is a delicious farce. Made all the more chewable due to Peter Straughan‘s script honing…
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Given the astronomically high bar set by director Paul King and co-writer Simon Farnaby with 2017’s Paddington 2, the 7-year wait for Paddington in Peru only adds to the film’s overall anticipation and, due to both King and Farnaby sitting out their directorial and screenwriting duties, slight trepidation. It goes without saying that very few…
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Despite the fact that Juror #2 is directed Clint Eastwood (reportedly, also, his last feature as a filmmaker) and contains an extended ensemble including, but not limited to, Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J.K. Simmons and Kiefer Sutherland, you’d be rightfully under the impression that such credentials hold no weight given the absolute mistreatment of this…
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Whether you loved him or hated him as part of Take That or on his own accord as a brash soloist, Robbie Williams, particularly in the 1990s, was a figure you couldn’t escape. Similar to the cultural impact of Geri Halliwell exiting the Spice Girls or Zayn Malik bidding adieu to One Direction, Williams’ exit…
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It’s too easy to claim that writer/director Sean Baker makes inaccessible films due to the fact that so many of his narratives centre around the society underrepresented, chief among them being sex workers. As we saw in such previous works as Tangerine and Red Rocket, Baker seeks to remove such a stigma around pornography performers, prostitutes…
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There’s a famous story surrounding when Jim Carrey approached Tommy Lee Jones at a restaurant one night during the production of Batman Forever in 1995. On the eve of the duo filming “their biggest scene together” on the Joel Schumacher sequel, Carrey popped into a diner where Jones happened to be eating. The maitre noted…
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Shifting away from the sibling rivalry at the centre of the modern-set dramedy Scrap, writer/director Vivian Kerr moves into gothic horror territory for her sophomore feature-length project, Séance, a dramatic tale that still admittedly utilises the mentality of rivalry, but does so in a different, more psychological manner. Grief, obsession, and both the fragile and toxic…
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A stunningly haunting reimagining of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent expressionist vampire film Nosferatu, itself an unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel “Dracula”, Robert Eggers‘ gothic tale (ironically) breathes fresh life into Henrik Galeen‘s original, weaving human obsession and pain in a macabre manner that results in the genre filmmaker delivering possibly his finest craft…
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Though there’s the sense that, initially, the characterisation of Benji Kaplan (Kieran Culkin) in A Real Pain is to purely lean into the personality-driven descriptiveness of such a title, writer/director Jesse Eisenberg has other plans in helping us as an audience empathise with his plight. Benji hones the type of energy that can be described…
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It goes without saying that The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is one that left an impressionable in-print on cinema. Many other films have tried their best to emulate its epic nature in the years since – even director Peter Jackson himself with the shaky Hobbit series – but few have captured correctly, so…
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As one of the first monitors to leverage Samsung’s next-generation 4K 240Hz QD-OLED panel, the Alienware 4K QD-OLED (AW3225QF) arrives with plenty of hype, and for good reason. This 32-inch, curved display builds on Alienware’s previous QD-OLED models, combining impressive technical specs with thoughtful design choices and stellar desktop appeal. It not only meets the…
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When we reviewed Microsoft Flight Simulator back in 2020, there was no doubt that we were playing something special. Something crafted for not only hardcore flight fans but also a new adventure for curious future enthusiasts to explore and experiment with. It’s something I can admit I never thought I would come to love, but…
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When Nintendo announced remakes of the long-dormant series Famicom Detective Club, it seemed like a nostalgic one-off experiment and no sure thing that the revamped titles from yesteryear would work in the present gaming landscape. Fast-forward and it would appear that those remakes were just a prologue, with more in store for fans. Enter Emio…
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SteelSeries is well known not only for its fantastic variety of gaming peripherals and accessories but also for its consistent quality. From the Arctis Nova Pro to the Arctis Nova 5 and even the Arctis Nova 1, it’s safe to say their newer headsets have all been winners in their own right. The SteelSeries Arctis…
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Positioned as a spiritual successor to the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series, Metaphor: ReFantazio is the latest offering from Japanese studio Atlus, trading in school halls for castle walls. Boldly delving into heavy themes of inequality and the corrupting influence of power, Atlus has certainly crafted one of the standout RPGs of the year….
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We’ve reviewed a bunch of Turtle Beach headsets over the past couple of years, from the high-end Stealth Pro to the more modest, yet value-packed Stealth 500. There’s no doubt that Turtle Beach is providing a wide range of features and price points across their headsets, and the newer Stealth 700 (Gen 3) is no…
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Arriving just in time for Christmas – though the holiday setting ultimately has no bearing on the show’s intrigue-heavy plotting – Netflix’s British action-thriller series Black Doves has all the surface-level expectation of a classic government conspiracy narrative, before revealing itself as something far deeper, darker, poignant and, surprisingly, humorous. Toplined by Keira Knightley –…
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We personally loved Stellar Blade when it was released earlier this year, and based on our review, still stand by the fact that it’s one of the better action games we’ve played this year. I’m also personally a huge fan of NieR: Automata, and it’s one of the first reviews I had ever written for this…
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Over the years LEGO has extended beyond physical building and constructed itself a cinematic universe that includes such figures as Batman, Scooby-Doo, and the Ninjago range. But what about a musical documentary about a multi-faceted performer who’s had his unique hands over everything from hard rock and nu metal to mainstream pop and the Despicable…
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A murder case that remains unsolved some near-three decades on, the slaying of 6-year-old beauty pageant phenomenon JonBenét Ramsey still can’t but help earn speculative interest today. And it’s through Joe Berlinger‘s three-part docuseries, Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?, that new theories, old wounds and investigative frustrations come to light, resulting in an enveloping, oft-unsettling…
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It’s not an uncommon trope for a female character to be introduced to her audience at her lowest moment. She indulges in a sense of self-loathing (we’ve all been there) and through either her friends, her career or a fresh male presence, she builds herself back up and becomes the best version of herself. In…
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We’ve had the pleasure of reviewing multiple Anker charging products in the past, like the 10,000 mAh 30W Power Bank, which I still use today. However, The Anker Prime Charger differs from what we’ve seen before. In its newer 250W, 6 port form, this GaNPrime desktop charger essentially acts as your go-to charging station for…
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