Category Archives: Film

The Girl With All The Gifts, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Gemma Arterton, Sennia Nanua, Glenn Close, Paddy Considine, Dominique Tipper, Anamaria Marcinca, Anthony Walsh, Lobna Futers, Fisayo Akinade.

The Girl With All The Gifts, the latest in a long line of Zombie apocalypse films that scream for attention and makes use of the fear that has invaded our thoughts in the last century; yet this contribution to the horror genre is not one that has the usual suspects running the show, this is the calm and fire all in one body, one who can save us but also tear us apart. It is a film that allows the cinema goer room to breathe but one that asks it not to, to take a large deep breath and keep in until the guts are about to burst.

The Girl With All The Gifts, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Jamie Dornan, Cillian Murphy, Toby Jones, Brian Caspe, Karel Hermánek Jr., Sara Arsteinova, Sean Mahon, Jan Hájek, Marcin Dorocinski, Alena Mihulová, Bill Milner, Charlotte Le Bon, Pavel Reznícek, Anna Geislerová, Justin Svoboda, Harry Lloyd, Václav Neuzil, Jiri Simek, Detlof Bothe, Jan Budar, Mish Boyko, David Bredin, Roman Zach, Sam Keeley, Alexander van der Groeben, Andrej Polak.

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

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

Blair Witch, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Brandon Scott, Valorie Curry, Corbin Reid, Wes Robinson.

Going down to the woods used to be such a peaceful, indeed a much anticipated past time, whole weekends would be spent deep in the interior, no other human, except for the hardy souls whose company you keep and whose tent erecting skills you knew would come in handy, would be anywhere near you for miles around and the closest scare you might receive is that of somebody warbling uncontrollably the theme to the Teddy Bear’s Picnic when the midnight bells rang out far into the distance. The woods were the best thing about camping, then along came The Blair Witch Project and all that changed.

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

(437 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Hunt For The Wilderpeople, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Sam Neil, Julian Dennison, Rima Te Wiata, Rachel House, Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne, Oscar Kightley, Stan Walker, Mike Minogue, Cohen Holloway, Rhys Darby, Troy Kingi, Taika Waititi, Hamish Parkinson, Stu Giles.

In Sam Neil the cinema has had one of strongest and most consistent actors of the last 50 years, a man who can easily transfer himself between the rigours of being part of a great film and the sideshow that television sometimes provides. It has always been something of an honour to watch his complex character unfold, and even in films that haven’t quite hit the mark, he still retains that genuine affection from the forgiving cinema goer.

Hunt For The Wilderpeople, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(390 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Captain Fantastic, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Viggo Mortensen, George Mackay, Samantha Isler, Annalise Basso, Nicholas Hamilton, Shree Crooks, Charlie Shotwell, Trin Miller, Kathryn Hahn, Steve Zahn, Elijah Stevenson, Teddy Van Ee, Erin Moriarty, Missi Pyle, Frank Langella, Ann Dowd, Rex Young, Galen Osier, Thomas Brophy, Mike Miller, Louis Hobson, Hannah Horton.

It is on the face of it a seemingly small moment in cinema but Matt Ross’ intelligent and superbly argued script for Captain Fantastic captures the point of individualism and socialism in a world that only wants you to be a drone, a consumer, a person to whom history means nothing and whose appetite for the material and the edible is verging on obese and dangerously unhealthy. It is with a touch of grace that Captain Fantastic turns that rotten ideology on its head and offers a different view on how to live.

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

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

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Adraina Ugarte, Emma Suárez, Michelle Jenner, Daniel Grao, Rossy de Palma, Inma Cuesta, Dario Grandinetti, Nathalie Poza, Pilar Castro, Susi Sánchez, Augustin Almodóvar, Blanca Parés, Mariam Bachir, Tomás del Estal, Joaquín Notario, Ramón Aguirre.

We may make the decisions that guide us, or at least we may think we do, but ultimately at the end fate may have other ideas and no matter how much try, we cannot be in control of what happens to us or those we hold close.

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

(393 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Café Society, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Jessie Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell, Ken Stott, Blake Lively, Sheryl Lee, Jeannie Berlin, Todd Weeks, Paul Schackman, Richard Portnow, Sari Lennick, Stephen Kunken, Corey Stoll, Edward James Hyland, Anna Camp, Parker Posey, Howard DiMaria, Kat Edmondson.

Life is built upon scandal and gossip, it requires no payment, it needs no encouragement, like a whisper in the dark, rumour and the chit chat between people is enough to send misinformation around the world quicker than a click of the send button on a keyboard; it is what the world skates around the universe upon and everybody at some point in their lives actively takes part.

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

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

War Dogs, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Miles Teller, Jonah Hill, Bradley Cooper, Ana de Armas, Kevin Pollack, David Packouz, Eddie Jemison, Julian Sergi, Edson Jean, Patrick St. Esprit, Jeremy Tardy, Ashley Spillers, J. B. Blanc, Gabriel Spahiu.

War has always been good for the economy, especially those that want to make a killing. It is no secret that the point of war is not to spread peace but to make money and for some bullets and dollars are all that make sense.

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

(504 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

Suicide Squad, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Jai Courtney, Jai Hernandez, Ben Affleck, Ike Barinholtz, Viola Davis, Common, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Cara Delevingne, Joel Kinnaman, Ezra Miller, Karen Fukuhara.

Take the worst of the worst, the real depths of humanity’s struggle with itself and watch the fur fly, the angst become riddled with pain, glory and sabotage and you have the comic book film of the summer, Suicide Squad. A film that carries on the expanding D.C. universe and which at the back of its mind arguably sees it wanting to desperately take on Marvel at its own game.

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

(459 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Finding Dory, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Ellen DeGeneres, Ed O’Neil, Kaitlin Olson, Hayden Rolence, Ty Burrell, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Sloane Murray, Idris West, Rob Peterson, Dominic West, Kate McKinnon, Bill Hader, Sigourney Weaver, Alexander Gould, Torbin Xan Bullock, Katherine Ringgold, Lucia Geddes, William Dafoe, Allison Janney.

Some sequels can justifiably be seen as a marketing tool, a chance to take the public down the same road with just enough plot twists to make it feel new and exciting, and too which the money becomes sly as the franchise becomes all consuming. It is perhaps cynical to think of it that way but it is nonetheless an important factor to remember.

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

(426 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)