Author Archives: Aaron R.

Spoiler Alert

This is not so much a review which encourages you to avoid or to see this film; it is predictably tense, Daniel Radcliffe is predictably average and all the supporting cast are predictably more engaging than he.  It is an average film.

Yet there is one strange and ( at least for me) unpredictable feature of the film that made it quite interesting. It is simply this Read the rest of this entry →

Brad Williams returns with another guest post

With doodies like Moneyball and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close managing to bag a few Oscar nominations, it seems appalling that so many other great films missed out on any real award recognition for the Oscars 2012. What follows are some films which I feel lost out in some way this Oscar season, with suggestions where they could have got a nomination or two. Read the rest of this entry →

Another review from Brad Williams; an inveterate film buff who also writes for WhatCulture.com

These will be films which I loved, and still do, but which seem to be forgotten by most people – the type of films that sit in the DVD wall of a minority, sparingly loaned out and shared with close friends. But films none the less, which deserve true recognition. Some are reasonably current, others slightly older, but each and every one, in my view, a modern classic.

Gone Baby Gone opens like a documentary, on the sweeping yet claustrophobic streets of a Boston neighbourhood known as Dorchester. Throwing us into calm and surprisingly visceral realisms, sophomore director Ben Affleck leaves no misconceptions about his intention to ground the film in an urbanised pragmatism one comes to expect from low budget independent affairs. The two hours that follow, are not only a consummately empathetic depiction of dark human drama, but also the blossoming of a true talent in Ben Affleck. Read the rest of this entry →

Brad Williams is an inveterate film buff who also writes for WhatCulture.com

Matt King (George Clooney) is a man with a lot on his plate. Sole custodian of the proverbial family gold mine, all eyes are on Matt as the deadline approaches to sell off a massive plot of Hawaiian land. To make matters worse, one month ago his wife was in a boating accident, leaving her in a coma ever since. Life before the accident was rocky and unfulfilling, but now Matt has to become the father he never knew how to be, the husband he always should have been, and the man his father always intended. Read the rest of this entry →

A caveat: I am francophile.  I acknowledge this conflict of interests here because I want to put it to one side in order to gush unashamedly about ‘The Artist’.

Perhaps the least surprising thing about Christmas this year is the success of ‘The Artist’.  It has already won the ‘New York Film Critics Circle Award’ for Best Film and is a good bet for a nod at this years Oscars.  In fact, after seeing it the other night, I will be surprised if it is not nominated in categories across the board.  It is, without doubt, wonderful. Read the rest of this entry →

Andrea Arnold is the director of the new, and critically acclaimed, version of Wuthering Heights but she also directed Fish Tank, which won the BAFTA for Best British Film.  Because Arnold is an up-and-coming British director, highlighting some of her past work seems worthwhile, especially for an American audience that may have missed her second feature film. Read the rest of this entry →