Category Archives: Film

The Fault In Our Stars, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Nat Wolff, Laura Dern, Sam Trammell, Mike Birbiglia, Lotte Verbeek, Willem Dafoe, Milica Govich, David Whalen, Ana Dela Cruz, Emily Peachey, Emily Bach.

It is rare, actually arguably near impossible, to find a film so heart-warming and yet so completely devastating at the same time. The dichotomy of the love that you feel for the two main characters trying its best to cope with the tears you feel running down your face in the type of constant movement that the M25 would love to be able to achieve on a Friday night during Rush Hour. Yet the dichotomy exists in stunning equal measure and creates a harmony of emotion that you just have to live with or ignore, there is no other way to handle The Fault In Our Stars than by giving in to it completely and utterly.

The Fault In Our Stars, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool. full post

(653 words, estimated 2:37 mins reading time)

Jersey Boys, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: John Lloyd Young, Erich Bergen, Michael Lomenda, Vincent Piazza, Christopher Walken, Renée Marino, Kathrine Narducci, Lou Volpe, Freya Tingley, Grace Kelley, Elizabeth Hunter,  Mike Doyle, Rob Marnell, Johnny Cannizzaro, Donnie Kehr, Jeremy Luke, Joey Russo, James Madio, Erica Piccininni, Steve Schirripa, Barry Livingston, Miles Aubrey, Kim Gatewood, Jackie Seiden, Kyli Rae, Troy Grant, Heather Ferguson Pond, John Griffin, Chaz Langley.

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

(651 words, estimated 2:36 mins reading time)

Venus In Fur, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.AC.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Emmanuelle Seigner, Mathieu Amalric.

Foreign language films in Britain do tend to attract a niche audience but that should not deter any fan of cinema from attending a showing of Director Roman Polanski’s film Venus in Fur.

In the U.K. audiences do tend to be split in the appreciation of a good film that has travelled across the deep waters of the Channel, it is a shame but it does happen. If an exception should be made for a film in the last ten years then Venus in Fur should be top of the pile. For this highly charged, message filled, erotic and electrifying piece of cinema, the limits of enjoyment are only placed by the confines of the mind’s refusal to accept something new and something truly fascinating, even enthralling and most of all completely and wonderfully strange.

Venus In Fur, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.AC.T. Liverpool. full post

(434 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Wilkinson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Emily Watson, Sam Reid, Tom Felton, James Norton, Miranda Richardson, Penelope Wilton, Sarah Gadon, Matthew Goode, Lauren Julien-Box, Natasha Williams, Alan McKenna, Timothy Walker, David Gant, Charlotte Roach, Rupert Wickham, Bethan Mary-James, Alana Ramsey, Alex Jennings, Daniel Wilde, Susan Brown, James Northcote, Andrew Woodall, Edmund Short, Christopher Middleton.

Pride meets extremism prejudice in Misan Sagay’s well written script for the film Belle.

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

(594 words, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)

Pulp: A Film About Life, Death and Supermarkets. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Nick Banks, Jarvis Cocker, Candida Doyle, Richard Hawley, Steve Mackey, Mark Webber, The People of Sheffield.

Despite their best efforts, there was more to British music other than Blur and Oasis in the mid-1990s. The hyped up Brit-Pop phenomenon that saw British music on the crest of a wave built up by hope, a certain amount of propaganda and teenage excitement rather than idealism and realism would soon come tumbling down and thankfully since around 2003, music has gained a perspective, even the enjoyment of discovery again.

Pulp: A Film About Life, Death and Supermarkets. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(662 words, estimated 2:39 mins reading time)

Jimmy’s Hall. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Barry Ward, Simone Kirby, Andrew Scott, Jim Norton, Brian F. O’Byrne, Paul Fox, Sorcha Fox, Aisling Franciosi, Karl Geary, Denise Gough, Aileen Henry, Seamus Hughes, Francis Magee, Conor McDermottroe.

For as long as Ken Loach is alive and well, there really should be no reason for him to ever give up film making. As his latest piece, Jimmy’s Hall, shows that where there is a story involving social commentary, of wrongs visited upon a particular person, there should be a person to be able to tell it and they don’t come any better than Ken Loach.

Jimmy’s Hall. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

(489 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Edge Of Tomorrow, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Brendan Gleeson, Bill Paxton, Jonas Armstrong, Tony Way, Terrance Maynard, Kick Gurry, Franz Drameh, Charlotte Riley, Dragomir Mrsic, Masayoshi Haneda, Lara Pulver, Madeleine Mantock,
Assly Zandry, Sebastian Blunt, Beth Goddard, Ronan Summers, Aaron Romano, Usman Akram, Bentley McKinley, Andrew Neil, Martin Hyder, Tommy Campbell, John Dutton, Harry Landis, Rachel Handshaw, Martin McDougal, Jane Hill,  Anna Botting. 

Edge Of Tomorrow, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

(551 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

X-Men: Days of Future Past, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender,  Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Shawn Ashmore, Omar Sy, Daniel Cudmore, Evan Peters, Fan Bingbing, Josh Helman, Ellen Page,  Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Kelsey Grammer, Adan Canto, Booboo Stewart, Lucas Till, Evan Jonigkeit, Gregg Lowe, Mark Camacho, James Marsden, Famke Janssen.

X-Men: Days of Future Past, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

(630 words, estimated 2:31 mins reading time)

Fading Gigolo, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Review 7/10

Cast: John Turturro, Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Sofia Vergara, Vanessa Paradis, Lieb Schreiber, Max Casella, Aida Turturro, Michael Badalucco, Aurélie Claudel, Loan Chabanol.

Fading Gigolo he maybe in a film but there is nothing faded, jaded or withered about John Turturro as a writer or as a film maker.

When Fioravante, John Turturro, helps purveyor of old and rare books Murray, Woody Allen, help finally close his shop due to the economic times we live in, it sets of a chain of events that sees the two impoverished men turn the tide slightly back in their favour by the under-discussed subject of prostitution for rich female clients.

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

(666 words, estimated 2:40 mins reading time)

The Two Faces Of January, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Isaac, Kirsten Dunst, David Warshofsky, Daisy Bevan, Yigit Özsener, Nikos Mavrakis, Prometheus Aleifer, Ozan Tas, Socrates Alafouzos, James Sobol Kelly, Evgenia Dimitropoulou, Omiros Poulakis, Brian Niblett, Mehmet Esen, Pablo Verdejo, Okan Avci, Kosta Kortidis, Karayianni Margaux, Peter Mair.

The Two Faces of January is a film in which the tension, fuelled by the appearances of unrivalled brinkmanship and matchless testosterone, excels. It delves into the culture of violence briefly but that is the point, it is an intelligent enough adaptation to realise that films don’t need to go down the route of overwhelming forceful aggression to make it worth watching. The violence that happens is more through circumstance of two men caught in a trap of their own making and of jealousy. The prize is not just freedom in the end it seems.

The Two Faces Of January, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

(419 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)