Category Archives: Film

Jupiter Ascending, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Douglas Booth, Tuppence Middleton, Christina Cole, Nicholas A. Newman, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Ramon Tikaram, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tim Pigott-Smith, James D’Arcy, Jeremy Swift, Vanessa Kirby, Samuel Barnett, Terry Gilliam.

There is no doubting the scale of imagination of the Wachowskis. Other, arguably more highly regarded and even phenomenally charged films such as The Matrix trilogy and the exceptional V for Vendetta, will however be remembered with more fondness than the latest film to escape Andy and Lana’s burgeoning net, the visually stunning but poorly delivered Jupiter Ascending.

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Wilkinson, Giovanni Ribisi, Tim Roth, Clay Chappell, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Andre Holland, Colman Domingo, Omar J. Dorsey, Common, Tessa Thompson, David Dwyer, David Morizot, Dylan Baker, Wendell Pierce, Trai Byers, Keith Stanfield, Stan Houston, Nigel Thatch, Tara Ochs, Cuba Gooding Jr., Michael Shikany, Martin Sheen.

 

Kingsman: The Secret Service, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson, Taron Egerton, Mark Hamill, Mark Strong, Michael Caine, Sophia Boutella, Jack Davenport, Samantha Womack, Sophie Cookson, Tom Prior, Alisha Heng, Corey Johnson, Hanna Alstrom, Edward Holcroft, Geoff Bell, Lily Travers.

 

Inherent Vice, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Joanna Newsom, Katherine Waterston, Josh Brolin, Reece Witherspoon,  Jordan Christian Hearn, Taylor Bonin, Jeannie Berlin, Eric Roberts, Serena Scott Thomas, Maya Rudolph, Martin Dew, Michael Kenneth Williams, Hong Chau, Shannon Collis, Benicio Del Toro, Owen Wilson, Martin Short, Sasha Pieterse.

 

Testament Of Youth, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Alice Vikander, Kit Harington, Dominic West, Emily Watson, Colin Morgan, Hayley Atwell, Taron Egerton, Miranda Richardson, Joanna Scanlan, Niamh Cusack, Anna Chancellor, Jonathan Thurlow, Charlotte Hope, Henry Garrett, Daisy Waterstone, Harry Atwell, Nicholas Le Prevost, Nicholas Farrell.

The Testament of Youth is such that it carries more weight at times than the blinkered, narrow-minded view point of a generation that doesn’t see the damage it has wrought.

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Paul Reiser, Melissa Benoist, Austin Stowell, Nate Long, Chris Mulkey, Damon Gupton, Susanne Spoke, Max Kasch, Charlie Ian, Jayson Blair, Kofi Siriboe, Kavita Patil, C.J. Vana, Tarik Lowe, Tyler Kimball, Rogelio Douglas Jr, Adrian Burks, Calvin C Winbush, Joseph Bruno, Michael D. Cohen, Jocelyn Ayanna, Keenan Henson, Rachel Bornholdt.

 

It is the one central theme of the film Whiplash, the act of dominance, which makes it such an achievement of cinema making.

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, James Corden, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine, Tracey Ullman, Christine Baranski, Johnny Depp, Lilla Crawford, Daniel Huttlestone, MacKenzie Mauzy, Billy Magnussen, Tammy Blanchard, Lucy Punch, Annette Crosbie, Joanna Riding, Frances de la Tour, Richard Glover, Simon Russell Beale.

 

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Sienna Miller, Vanessa Redgrave, Anthony Michael Hall, Guy Boyd, Brett Rice, Francis J. Murphy III, Jane Mowder, David Bennett, Lee Perkins, Daniel Hilt.

 

Making a film out of sport can be as hit or miss as putting a blindfolded 15 year old goalkeeper up against Lional Messi in the World Cup Final in a best of five penalties on the basis that he once saved a penalty in a school yard against the doddery old headmaster. Sometimes promise never, ever matches reality.

The Theory of Everything, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast:  Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Harry Lloyd, David Thewlis, Maxine Peake, Simon McBurney, Emily Watson, Guy Oliver-Watts, Lucy Chappell, Charlotte Hope, Abigail Cruttenden, Christian McKay, Adam Godley, Alice Orr-Ewing, Thomas Morrison, Michael Marcus, Nicola Sloane, Nicholas Gerard-Martin, Brett Brown, Anthony Skimshire, Eileen Davies, Simon Chandler, Georg Nikoloff, Tom Prior, Sophie Perry, Finlay Wright-Stephens, Gruffudd Glyn, Paul Longley, Enzo Cilenti.

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Andrea Risborough, Zach Galifianakis, Lindsay Duncan, Jeremy Shamos, Kenny Chin, Jamahl Garrison-Lowe, Katherine O’ Sullivan, Damian Young, Keenan Shimizu, Akiro Ito, Natalie Gold, Merritt Weaver, Michael Siberry, Clark Middleton, Amy Ryan, William Youmans, Paula Pell, David Fierro, Hudson Flynn,  Warren Kelly, Joel Marsh Garland.

Some films are just so perfect that the ideology behind them, the message they are meant to represent, doesn’t matter. What matters is the substance, the overall feel in which they leave the audience fulfilled and more content than being told they could eat whatever they wanted over the festive period, it wouldn’t show up as weight gained on the scales at home.