Tag Archives: Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T.

Dragged Across Concrete, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn, Tory Kittles, Michael Jai White, Thomas Kretschmann, Jennifer Carpenter, Laurie Holden, Don Johnson, Udo Kier, Fred Malamed, Justine Warrington.

Robbery against the large faceless institutions, unlike murder, is one when presented in either fact or fiction produces a dichotomy of feelings for the average person, on one hand is rejoiced as a blow against the system which will happily see all bend under the strain of financial constraint whilst those that impose economic sanctions continue to thrive and prosper, on the other hand, the moral indignation takes hold and inside asks what makes such actions necessary, why should a thief get away with their actions when all the rest of society behaves and hopes for better days.

Red Joan, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Hughes, Laurence Spellman, Tereza Srbova, Ben Miles, Robin Soans, Kevin Fuller, Stephen Boxer,

The declaration and labelling of being a traitor is one that is arguably fraught with the agony that comes with not being able to present your side of the story to the nation without it being lost in the clamour of calls for your neck, to die at the hands of a public spurred on by mass media and the urging of government to dole out maximum punishment.

Wild Rose, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * *

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Julie Walters, Sophie Okonedo, Craig Parkinson, Jamie Sives, Gemma McElhinney, James Harkness, Bob Harris, Ashley Shelton, Tracy Wiles, Daniel Campbell, Blair Kincaid, Janey Godley, James McElvar, Rachel Pearl, Vanya Eadie, J. Thomas Bailey, Sondra Morton, Lee Ann Maloney, Justin Hand, Patti Aagaard, Stuart Nisbit, Neil MacColl.

A film that relies on the visual cliche, no matter how well intentioned, is going to surely, and regrettably, be seen as nothing more than touching the very basic of emotions in an audience more than used to a more than likely ending, series of conflicting acts that lead up to the resolution and the moment of telegraphed outcomes that are going to be signalled from the opening scenes.

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Rosamund Pike, Jamie Dornan, Tom Hollander, Faye Marsay, Corey Johnson, Greg Wise, Alexandra Moen, Jesuthasan Antonyhasan, Raman Srinivasan, Natasha Jayetileke, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Amanda Drew, Hilton McRae, Fady Elsayed, Tristan Tait, Toma Shelmon, Nadeem Srouji, Mahmoud Al Fari, Rani Jalal, Thaer Manakhi, David Modigliani, Pano Masti, Stanley Tucci, Mo’ath Sharif, Rami Delshad, Bassam Hanna Touma, Jeremie Laheurte, Raad Rawi, Emil Hajj.

The line between truth and distortion lays not only in the hands of the reader, but in the sincerity of the journalist whose name appears before the attention-grabbing headline.

All Is True, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Lydia Wilson, John Dagleish, Kathryn Wilder, Sam Ellis, Alex MacQueen, Jack Colgrave Hirst, Margaret Wheeler, Gerard Horan, Doug Colling, Lolita Chacrabarti, Philip Dunster, Freya Durkan, Flora Easton, Matt Jessup, Sabi Perez, Michael Rouse, Kate Tydman.

It is a beautiful story and one that will break the heart of anyone with half a romantic soul in their body and yet like all beautiful whispers that we seek to take advantage of by seemingly learning something of the poet’s soul, fiction, that forgiving beast of bounty, leads to a comedy of inaccuracies and yet we still pursue it as if it were a fair maiden covered in buttercup petals or a rueful youth displaying muscles and brawn on the beach.

The Old Man & The Gun, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek, Casey Affleck, Danny Glover, Tom Waits, Tika Sumpter, Gene Jones, John David Washington, Barlow Jacobs, Augustine Frizzell, Jennifer Joplin, Lisa DeRoberts, Carter Bratton, Mike Dennis, Tomas Deckaj, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Patrick Newall, Daniel Britt, Leah Roberts, Elisabeth Moss, Alphaeus Green Jr., Kevin McClatchy, Keith Carradine, Todd Covert, Kenneisha Thompson, Robert Longstreet.

Black ’47, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Hugo Weaving, James Frecheville, Stephen Rae, Freddie Fox, Barry Keoghan, Moe Dunford, Sarah Greene, Jim Broadbent, Ciaran Grace, Colm Seoighe, Olivier Biwer, Kieran Boland, Antonia Cambell-Hughes, Dermot Rowley, Diarmuid de Faoite, Fiach Kunz, Joe Lydon, Geraldine McAlinden, Aiden McCardle, Liam McEvoy, Keith McErlean.

In the best traditions of the revenge film genre, Black ’47 must surely sit as a truly incredible example of writing, not only in terms of its absorbing, harrowing storyline but in the judgement it passes on the nature of greed and neglect for our neighbours, our souls and what they are worth when we can idly sit by as people die in the streets as the hunger and cold eats away at their resolve and their lives.

On Chesil Beach, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Billy Howle, Emily Watson, Samuel West, Anne-Marie Duff, Adrian Scarborough, Rasmus Hardiker, Bebe Cave, Jonjo O’Neill.

Time and sensitivity are not natural bed fellows, neither is truly mature enough to handle each other’s whims, demands or spoilt child like behaviour when the going gets tough; it takes a writer of delicate persuasion in which to capture the beauty in heartache and the sudden fall of a relationship which had been so clear before.

I, Tonya, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney, Julianne Nicholson, Paul Walter Hauser, Bobby Cannavale, Bojana Novakovic, Caitlin Carver, Maizie Smith, Mckenna Grace, Joshua Mikel.

Life is a circus that is often played out to the tune of someone else’s calling, rebel in any shape of form, become a thorn in the side of authority, and you end up paying the heaviest of penalties, whether you deserve them or not. To rebel against the system is everyone’s right, find your own tune to dance to, but when it goes wrong, there is nothing you can do but blame yourself.

Phantom Thread, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lesley Manville, Vicky Krieps, Richard Graham, Camilla Rutherford, Harriet Sansom Harris, Brian Gleeson, Julia Davis, Nicholas Mander, Gina McKee, Philip Franks, Phyllis MacMahon, Silas Carson, Martin Dew, Jane Perry, Paul Leasley.

There are always going to be films that have the fashionable and the sense of capitulation, of strong wills colliding and the realisation that to many, clothes really do encompass the person’s every waking moment. It could be seen as a statement, that what we wear on the outside is a reflection of how we wish to be seen on the inside, our mood, our aspirations and dreams, our sharpness, our overall statement to the world is wrapped up in appearance and the clothes we dress them up in; there are always going to be films which deal with this motif but Phantom Thread tugs at its very core belief a bit more than others might dare.