REVIEW: The Good Liar

Bill Condon’s latest movie is based on an all-too obvious deceit. After all, when you name a film The Good Liar, you beg the question, “Who?”.

An elderly pair –Roy (Ian McKellen) and Betty (Helen Mirren) – are getting together for a first date.…

PODCAST: Doctor Sleep [Electric Shadows]

Episode 73 journey back to The Overlook Hotel for a discussion of Doctor Sleep, the sequel to both Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

Robs Daniel and Wallis also take this as an opportunity to review Stanley Kubrick’s classic horror film, discussing why it still has such a hold on the imagination nearly forty years later.…

REVIEW: Terminator: Dark Fate

The Terminator franchise is one based on a contradiction.

The future is not set might be the mantra at its heart, passed down from father to mother to son and back to father, but that long, dark road always circles back round to one inevitable outcome: robo-apocalypse.

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PODCAST: Terminator: Dark Fate [Electric Shadows]

Episode 72 of The Electric Shadows Podcast is another one on location. This time our intrepid explorers in pod, Robs Daniel and Wallis, are at the London O2 braving the latest Terminator film.

In the last ten years paying to see Terminator films has been something of a fool’s errand and the trailers for Dark Fate were not promising.

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REVIEW: A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood [LFF 2019]

With Operation Yewtree looming large over once-idyllic childhood viewing, in the minds of the British public the last few years have altered what it means to be a beloved children’s entertainer.

As such, it’s understandable that UK audiences might not be entirely comfortable with the notion of Mr.…

REVIEW: The Lighthouse [LFF 2019]

As in his 2015 directorial debut The Witch, Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse grapples with the theme of spiritual annihilation, though in a way that’s altogether wetter, wilder, and weirder.

Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe star as two wickies, or lighthouse keepers, cut off on a crag of brine-blasted, inhospitable rock far from the mainland.If God hadn’t made it as far as the New England wilderness of The Witch, it’s doubtful He’d know what to do if he made out this far.…

PODCAST: Top 10 of the 2019 London Film Festival [Electric Shadows]

Episode 71 of The Electric Shadows Podcast is an epic review of our top 10 of the 2019 London Film Festival.

Over the course of two hours, Robs Daniel & Wallis run through their respective Top 10s of the festival. There is some crossover, but some shocks are in store as films make one Rob’s list but not the other.…

PODCAST: The Dry Cleaner [DryCleanerCast]

A slight break from the usual as I interview writer-director-friend Chris Carr on his podcast, The Dry Cleaner Cast, to discuss his new spy film, The Dry Cleaner.

 

“A raid in Paris has yielded a link between the terrorist organisation Munathma and a revolutionary group called the FKA.…

PODCAST: Joker [Electric Shadows]

In episode 70 of The Electric Shadows Podcast, Robs Daniel and Wallis set their laughing gear to discussing Todd Phillips’ Joker.

A controversial film being hailed as a masterpiece, the two Robs are baffled as to why.

They both talk about why the film left them unimpressed and non-plussed, from the slavish homage to Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy to Joaquin Phoenix’s mannered performance.…

REVIEW: Joker

After all that critical adulation, it’s a punchline worthy of the Clown Prince of Crime himself that Joker isn’t very good.

We’re in early ’80s Gotham for DC’s latest movie. Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), battling mental illness, is employable only as a street clown sign-spinner for local recession-hit businesses.…