REVIEW: Dream Scenario, Butcher’s Crossing, and The Retirement Plan [Nicolas Cage Triple Bill]

Dream Scenario

Butcher’s Crossing

The Retirement Plan

Only three of the six Nicolas Cage films released this year, not counting his cameo in The Flash, Dream Scenario, Butcher’s Crossing, and The Retirement Plan showcase the variety and inconsistency of his output.…

REVIEW: The Toll

Described by director Ryan Andrew Hooper as a “West Walian Western”, The Toll is the latest in a long, crooked line of blackly-comic British crime capers.

Brendan (Michael Smiley) is a solitary, taciturn man who enjoys simple, solitary pleasures – which is for the best, given he works at perhaps the loneliest toll booth in rural Pembrokeshire.…

PODCAST: Coming 2 America & Raya and the Last Dragon [The Movie RobCast]

In episode 111, the Robs look at two films originally intended for cinema, Eddie Murphy’s Coming 2 America and Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon

Elsewhere, they discuss the finer points of IMDb plot synopses, Rob D talks about his COVID vaccination, and they brace themselves for what they’ll be talking about in episode 112…

If you like what you hear or have any feedback, why not rate and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts?…

REVIEW: Willy’s Wonderland

For most actors, the switch to straight-to-VOD still feels like a step down. Even now, there’s something about the big screen that seems to promise a sort of immortality not guaranteed by the vagaries of streaming service algorithms.

Not so with Nicolas Cage, for whom acting seems to be an endearing mix of day-job professionalism and performative insanity.…

RETROSPECTIVE: Link

Did you ever watch that episode of Malcolm in the Middle with the monkey butler and think, “This, but a feature version with General Zod as an anthropology professor and a young Elisabeth Shue”?

If so, I firstly applaud the specificity of your tastes and, secondly, boy, have I got some news for you.…

REVIEW: Rams

Based on Grímur Hákonarson’s Hrutar, Rams transplants that film’s woolly, fraternal premise from the rugged slopes of Iceland to Australia.

Bucolic, taciturn Colin (Sam Neill) approaches farming with wistful humour and affection. His brother Les (Michael Caton) is an ornery, cantankerous drunk who makes a habit of passing out in fields.…

REVIEW: Promising Young Woman

A revenge thriller from a former show runner on Killing Eve, Promising Young Woman is every bit as stylish and unique as that pedigree suggests.

It’s a bitter trope that young, male abusers are spared the full brunt of the just system due to their status as a “promising young man”.…

REVIEW: Say Your Prayers

British indie comedy Say Your Prayers locates itself comfortably in the tradition of inept Brits making a mess of rural idylls – in this case, violently.

The idyll here is the rugged landscape of West Yorkshire. The blokes in question are Tim (Harry Melling), permanently ensconced in a Tibetan earflap, and Vic (Tom Brooke), hatchet-faced and angry.…

London Film Festival 2017 – A Rundown (Part 2)

So, here goes it: Part 2 of my three-part rundown of my 2017 London Film Festival experience. Part 1 is available here.

 

Call Me By Your Name

A story of sex, sculpture, and self-discovery, Call Me By Your Name is the latest in a recent trend of achingly sensitive LGBT romantic dramas that seem to hold such an allure for me.…

REVIEW: The Death of Stalin

What do we do when life imitate art to the extent that it renders art redundant?

Well, in short, you look for relevancy elsewhere.

With Trump still in the White House and Brexit still apparently going ahead, the world is too absurd in itself to get much mileage out of trying to take it further.…