REVIEW: Winchester

Gun-house, not fun-house.

The House of Haunted Hill. The Shining. Poltergeist. The Amityville Horror. The Conjuring. The haunted house is perhaps the staple trope of the whole horror genre. The things that go bump in the night are, as a rule, scarier when they’re living – or not living – in your home, and in Winchester, the Spierig Brothers have given themselves some prime real estate to play with.…

REVIEW: Early Man

Aardman Animations’ latest sends comedy back to the Stone Age… but not in the way you might hope.

We open, according to a subtitle, on Neo-Pleistocene Earth, tracking away from a furiously erupting volcano. Dinosaurs tussle up on a ridge; a tribe of primeval persons are exuberantly beating the tar out of one another; all of which are expertly made of plasticine.…

Our BAFTA 2018 predictions

By Max Eshraghi

The BAFTA film awards have always been the Oscar’s slightly more unassuming younger sibling.

While it mightn’t be quite as renowned or lavish, we Brits can conclusively make claim to having one thing over on our transatlantic cousins: BAFTA, unlike the so-called Academy Awards, frequently gets it “right”.…

REVIEW: Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour gives us the British bulldog as belligerent underdog in this un-illuminating portrayal of legendary Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his first few weeks in office.

It’s 1940 and Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup; dignified and resigned in a role originally intended for John Hurt) has been driven out of office.…

PODCAST: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, & Darkest Hour [Electric Shadows]

In Episode 37 of The Electric Shadows Podcast, Robs Daniel & Wallis look at one of the best films of the year and a contender for one of the worst.

Impressing them is Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.…

REVIEW: Good Time & The Post

Good Time

This seedy, ‘70s-inspired crime thriller from the Safdie Brothers might equally be called “Bad Decisions”.

It’s certainly a bad decision for hustler Connie Nikas (Robert Pattinson) to yank his developmentally-disabled brother Nick (Ben Safdie) out of therapy and bring him along on a bank robbery.…

PODCAST: Our top 10 films of 2017 [Electric Shadows]

Rob Daniel and myself do a proper Universe crossover, running through their respective films of the year lists, scoring them and coming up with a definitive Electric Shadows and Of All The Film Sites Top 10 Films of 2017.

It’s the only Top 10 you’ll need this year.…

PODCAST: Reservoir Dogs at 25 [Electric Shadows]

For this special Reservoir Dogs 25th Anniversary episode, Rob Daniel and myself are joined once more by Ian Bird. You’ll remember Ian from his wise words on the JFK podcast.

Together we dissect Quentin Tarantino’s sensational debut, discussing its strengths, characters, themes and controversial use of language.…