REVIEW: You Can’t Run Forever

You Can’t Run Forever is a thriller with strong cinematic roots, but it’s one that doesn’t quite bear dramatic fruit.

When traumatised teen Miranda (Isabelle Anaya) gets in the car with her well-meaning stepdad, Eddie (Allen Leech), for a day trip, they can’t know what’s waiting for them out on the highway – an amiably murderous sociopath, Wade (J.…

Hell or High Water, or: of consequences and Comanches

The West Texas portrayed in Hell or High Water is less No Country For Old Men than no country for anyone.

Based on a Black Listed screenplay by Taylor Sheridan – who also scripted Denis Villeneuve’s similarly sun-bleached Sicario – the generically titled Hell or High Water manages to escape from the long shadow of the Coen Brother’s 2007 Best Picture winner by introducing a vein of social commentary and lightness of touch without compromising the essential spareness and determinism that characterize the modern-day Western.…

The Counselor is a film in desperate need of help

 

The Counselor is an unusual beast.

In its opening moments, cheetahs stalk wild hares on the Savannah, not of Africa but Mexico; a flamboyant, eccentrically rich couple picnic nearby in the company of some luxury motors.

Sometime soon Michael Fassbender’s nameless eponym will be buying a diamond from Bruno Ganz’s merchant, who pontificates on the beauty of the stone lying in its flaws.…