The Female Filmmakers You Should Be Watching

There's much to be commented on when it comes to the lack of female representation in cinema, for a more analytical look at the lack of progress head here http://thefilmsurgeon.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/hollywood-mans-world.html.

So in the interest of promoting a positive outlook here are some of the exciting female filmmakers to look out for. Seek out their work, be excited by them and never stop demanding more of it.


Ava DuVernay - DuVernay has worked in the industry for over a decade now. In 2010 she made her feature film debut with the sensitive drama I Will Follow. Her most successful film to date is Selma, the powerful period drama chronicling the civil rights march on Selma in Alabama, DuVernay brought out an exceptional performance from David Oyelowo as Dr Martin Luther King and captured in a grueling but necessary manner the brutality that the civil rights movement faced. DuVernay seems like a director with a great talent for capturing human struggle, it will be fascinating to see in what other areas of cinema she applies this skill.

Gia Coppola - It's both a blessing and a curse being born into one of the most talented Hollywood families. It offers up opportunities but also comes with a sense of entitlement that adds an extra level of scrutiny. Gia Coppola, the grand-daughter of Francis Ford-Coppola and niece of Sofia Coppola is now the third generation of Coppola filmmakers. Fortunately for Gia Coppola her debut feature Palo Alto is an impressive one. Coppola's talent lies in being able to impassively capture the human experience, in Palo Alto she focused on the everyday life and struggles of adolescents in California. It bodes well going forward, and having 3 generations of Coppola's making movies can only be a good thing.



Amma Asante - Ava DuVernay isn't the only black female director to be able to get an outstanding performance out of David Oyelowo. Last month saw the release of A United Kingdom which was Asante's third feature film. It felt like a film where Asante had properly matured as a filmmaker since her 2004 debut A Way of Life. Asante feels like an old fashioned type of filmmaker who is able to provide levity and heft to political period films but is so adept at capturing the smaller human moments. Having a female voice behind the camera is a rarity, having a black female voice even rarer, in times of unease around the world filmmakers such as Asante are going to become essential. A United Kingdom is still out in cinemas now.

Kelly Reichardt - Since her 1994 debut feature film River of Grass, Kelly Reichardt has built an impressive catalogue of films which have received great critical acclaim. She's a master of the minimalist movement in cinema and her career seems to be going from strength to strength. At this years London Film Festival, a festival which sought to celebrate women in film, Reichardt's latest film Certain Women took home the grand prize, based on Maile Meloy's collection of short stories it is Reichardt's third collaboration with actress Michelle Williams and features the three intersecting stories of three different women's lives in a small american town. Certain Women is set to be released in cinemas on March 3rd 2017.

Patty Jenkins - What may be noticeable about the other female directors on this list is they almost universally operate on the independent side of cinema. Patty Jenkins only has one feature film credit to her name, where she directed Charlize Theron to an Oscar winning performance in 2003's Monster. Fourteen years later Jenkins is getting another chance on the big screen with the DC superhero movie Wonder Woman set to come out next year. The early trailers look impressive, and if previous DC box office hauls are anything to go by then Jenkins has every chance of making Wonder Woman the highest grossing film directed by a woman, hopefully the film is great and audiences can make it a success paving the way for more blockbusters directed by women.



Kelly Fremon Craig - This month saw a very strong debut from Kelly Fremon Craig with her intelligent and witty coming of age film The Edge of Seventeen. With only one other writing credit to her name, The Edge of Seventeen showed Craig to have a really unique and individual voice, it has a rich vein of quite biting humour and like many young female writer/directors she's adept at capturing the catastrophising of the teenage psyche. Craig's dialogue could easily be applied to the MCU and there's no reason why her career couldn't take that path. The Edge of Seventeen is out in cinemas now.



Marielle Heller - More commonly known as an actress who has appeared in the likes of Macgruber and A Walk Among The Tombstones, Heller made her first outing as a director in 2015 with the brilliant, offbeat and vibrant The Diary of a Teenage Girl. It's a teen movie that was far more than those that had gone before it, it was morally complex and adult but never lost its sense of charm and wit. As always seems to be the way after a strong female debut, Heller's talent behind the camera has taken her to TV for the mean time, but with 2 possible projects announced there's potentially more to come from Heller on the big screen. 



Clio Barnard - As with many of the filmmakers on this list, there are too few films in their filmography, but the impact they make is all the stronger because of it. In just two feature length films, with her third due to come out next year, Barnard has cultivated critical acclaim for her work. In 2010 her first film The Arbor was a unique documentary on the British playwright Andrea Dunbar which garnered Barnard a BAFTA nomination. Barnard's second film The Selfish Giant, a social realist film about two young boys from Bradford getting into the scrap business was a hauntingly beautiful film which is funny in parts but also hits very hard when it has too. Barnard is a powerful voice in British cinema and an important storyteller.  



Andrea Arnold - Since winning the academy award for best live action short back in 2005 Andrea Arnold hasn't looked back. In just four films Arnold has developed quite the reputation, two of her films have won BAFTA's, she's a frequenter of many a film festival and even has an OBE. Her work has been lauded for their visual beauty as well as their sensitivity at portraying the human experience. Her works can occasionally feel indulgent and frustrating but they are all the type of films you have to see regardless. Seek out Fish Tank in particular which features an exceptional lead performance from first time actress Katie Jarvis.





Ana Lily Amirpour - Amirpour is what can only be described as seriously cool. After writing and directing several short films Amirpour made the leap to feature length films in 2014 writing and directing A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Described by Amirpour as "the first Iranian vampire spaghetti western" it is a film that oozes cool, its features stunning black and white cinematography and its pace and tone are akin to the works of Jim Jarmusch with a touch of Nicolas Winding Refn. After such a daring debut film her second feature The Bad Batch, described as "a post apocalyptic cannibal love story set in a Texas wasteland" won the special prize at the Venice film festival and is set to hit screens sometime next year.

Guide to Festive Film Viewing

And so it is that we enter the festive season, Wham, Wizzard and Slade are on hard repeat in your local supermarket and television adverts have entered that weird time of year when they are exposed to some weird form of social criticism on how 'Christmassy' they are.
As the Christmas trees go up so to do the Christmas films get turned on, with a smattering of less than enticing new festive releases at your local multiplex, here is your guide to the classic Christmas films to watch this year, and where you can fortunately catch them.

It's A Wonderful Life - Unquestionably the most classic of all classic Christmas films. The story of hard on his luck George Bailey (James Stewart) who reaches the point where he feels things would be better if he wasn't alive, that is until angel in training Clarence (Henry Travers) comes to Earth to show George exactly what life would be like if he had never existed. It's immensely heartwarming in showing how much one man can do in his life and how a community comes together when a good man is in need.
Park Circus will be screening It's A Wonderful Life in lots of places over the Christmas period, but try and catch their Christmas Eve screening at The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

The Nightmare Before Christmas- Wanting to successfully bridge the gap between Halloween and Christmas? Then look no further than this stop motion animation classic from the dark mind of Tim Burton. Though actually directed by Henry Selick (Coraline) this is unmistakably Burton's imagination. It's a perfect blend of Halloween darkness and Christmas warmth and features some genuinely timeless songs such as the exceptionally catchy 'Whats this?'.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - With vacations to Wally World and Europe there's no question that the Griswald's adventures would feature a festive vacation. This is one of those Christmas films that isn't entirely heartwarming and sacren, it does however feature a brilliant comic performance as the patriarch of the Griswald family attempting to keep things together as they look increasingly like spiraling out of control. It's worth it alone just to see Clark's epic rant about his boss.

Gremlins - Speaking of not-so-festive Christmas films, Joe Dante's Gremlins is the ultimate example of a family film that's given a nasty edge. After teenager Billy inadvertently flouts three important rules surrounding the care of his new pet Mogwai he unleashes a collection of anarchic creatures on his town known as Gremlins. It features exceptional special effects work from Rick Baker, It's mischievous and naughty and guaranteed to entertain children and adults alike.

The Muppet Christmas Carol -  For most 20 somethings this is almost the definitive adaptation of Dicken's classic novel, and that's because of the immense love people feel towards the Muppet's. The most impressive thing about this adaptation is the great pleasure to be taken from what Muppet's crop up as which characters, Gonzo shoe horned in as Dicken's narrating the story on screen works well, and Mr Fezziweg was destined to become Mr Fozzywigg. You do have to witness Michael Caine singing but it more or less comes out unscathed from that.
Park Circus will be screening The Muppet Christmas Carol on Sat 18th and Sun 19th at Liverpool FACT cinema.

Miracle on 34th Street - Before seeing this film make sure that you're watching the original version, though the 1994 remake is a spirited and interesting attempt at the story it loses a lot of the warmth that original has in abundance. It's a weird film which features the story of a nice old man called Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) who is institutionalised when he claims that he is in fact the real Santa Claus. A young lawyer (John Payne) decides to defend him in court to try and prove that he is in fact who he says he is.

Home Alone - It launched the career of child star Macaulay Culkin and since it's 1990 release has since become a classic. Home Alone is the story of 8 year old Kevin McCallister who must protect his home from hapless burglars (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) when he is accidentally left behind when his family goes on vacation meaning he is left home alone. It's a film based on a very flimsy premise that doesn't really make much sense, but its carried by a brilliant lead performance from Culkin and the endless borderline sadistic slapstick comedy is consistently hilarious.

Elf - Probably the most recent example of a film that's become a staple of the Christmas period. Will Ferrell stars as Buddy the Elf, a man who has been raised by elves and has become increasingly more hapless as he's grown larger until he eventually decides it's time to head to New York to find his birth father (James Caan). The pleasure of this film is in the brilliant 'fish out of water' comedy performance that Ferrell gives, surrounded by able support from talented actors this is a proper Christmas treat, and it has Bob 'freaking' Newhart in it for Christ's sake.

Scrooge - There are so many different versions of the Dickens classic that its difficult to know which one to pick (the muppety one already features on this list). There's fairly average versions such as the Patrick Stewart starring version and the mildly irritating George C Scott version. Then there's Robert Zemeckis' motion captured version which is fairly impressive in terms of the dynamic visual way it chooses to tell the story. There can, however, be only one definitive version of the story and that is the Alistair Sim starring Scrooge from 1951. There's something of the age of this version that holds a warmth and nostalgia like no other version does, and no other actor can hold a Victorian candle to Sim's performance as Ebeneezer Scrooge.

Die Hard - No list of Christmas film's would be complete without the ultimate smart-arse answer of one of the greatest action films ever made Die Hard. It is set at Christmas and has popularised the use of Christmas jumpers being bestowed with the message of 'Ho-ho-ho now I have a machine gun'. Outside of that however it is a balls to the wall action film and an incredibly exciting way to spend 131 minutes. Also in the year that we lost the great Alan Rickman, what better way to remember him then watching his feature film debut as the greatest on screen villain of all time, Hans Gruber. No one did benevolence like Rickman and few could make you shiver with a line like 'I'm going to count to three, there will not be a four'.

Arrival Review

Man has often wondered whether we are truly alone in the universe, through cinema we have been able to explore what might happen if we weren't. There have been hundreds of films that explore the idea of first contact, what would the aliens want? How would we react? and what famous landmark are they likely to destroy first? What's most exceptional is how many questions Arrival attempts to tackle.

Arrival, follows linguistics expert Dr. Louise Banks, an aggrieved mother who is drawn in as an expert by the US military to try and communicate with the aliens as great oval shaped monoliths have appeared at 12 points across the globe. What then follows is a film that is the polar opposite to most alien invasion films before it. This is one of the most intelligent films in recent memory, but unlike a film like Interstellar which just threw in loads of theoretical physics to appear smart, Arrival makes an incredible effort to take complex ideas and restructure them into digestible bites of information. There are anecdotes and diagrams that help the descriptions, but the film never feels patronizing, it is always fascinating.

With monoliths appearing at 12 different locations across the globe, the necessary countries are entitled to deal with their monoliths in whatever way they see fit. Arrival becomes a study in how international relations need to be maintained in the face of a crisis, how engaging in a dialogue and sharing information with each other is vital, the film dares to ask how can we begin to communicate with another species when we can't even communicate with ourselves?

The design of the film is exceptional, the stone design of the alien crafts are incredibly haunting as they lurk over the landscape, the moment we see them first enter the alien craft are incredibly eerie. Then there's the score, after his exceptional work on the score for last years Sicario Johan Johannson has one upped himself this year, creating an oppressive and brash score, with wonderful moments of lightness. There is also a beautiful symbiotic relationship between the sound design and score that make the score feel incredibly natural.

Director Denis Villeneuve is proving himself to be one of the hottest properties in the business at the moment, those fretting over the Blade Runner sequel to be released will surely fret less knowing he is at the helm. Whats so impressive about Villeneuve is the performances he gets out of his actors, which is no different here. Amy Adam intelligent and touching performance is sure to garner her another Oscar nomination. Louise is fiercely smart and determined but she's also been left tortured by the loss of her daughter. Jeremy Renner plays theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly, its a credit to the usually quite jockish Renner that he manages to play Ian with an affable and endearing quality. Supporting roles are all strong also, Forrest Whitaker is quietly impressive as the colonel in charge of the operation, particularly in how he manages to avoid any of the bad guy stereotypes associated with this role, leaving most of the pencil pushing bureaucracy burdening the science to Michael Stuhlbarg's CIA agent Halpern.

Arrival is so impressive for so long, and then it does what a lot of big idea sci-fi's do and shifts into something incredibly existential towards the end. Unlike most other sci-fi's though this isn't alienating in the slightest, it elevates the film to another level and feels entirely of a piece with everything that proceeded it.

Villeneuve has directed such marvels as Prisoners, Enemy, Sicario and now Arrival, he's got his greatest challenge approaching with his Blade Runner sequel, so its a good time to be bordering on near infallibility.

(High 5 Stars)

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Review

The story of the boy wizard Harry Potter definitively ended with the final installment of the series, The Deathly Hallows P2 released in 2011. However, over the course of 10 years, 8 films and over $7billion in box office takings, Warner Bros had successfully created their own cinematic universe, this definitely wasn't going to be the end. In an attempt to explore the wizarding world some more author JK Rowling has made her screenwriting debut and brought the world  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Fantastic Beasts follows the adventures of magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), who comes to New York carrying a magical suitcase filled with all manner of magical beasts, although not all of them remain in the case. In a case of unfortunate timing Newt has come to New York when some unknown and unseen being has been terrorizing the city sending the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA for short) into a frenzy. Newt, with the assistance of his new Nomaj (non magical person) friend, Newt seeks to collect all of his beasts in order to prove that none of them are responsible for the deaths in the city.

There is an unending amount of charm to this film helped in no small part by the delightful performance of Redmayne. Newt is the socially awkward type, averting his gaze from people in conversation wishing he could be anywhere else, he's the typical Brit a sort of wizarding Hugh Grant bumbling around, and the film barely gets under his skin meaning there's so many more layers of him to explore going forward. Katherine Waterston as Tina is a really interesting female lead, she's persistent and bossy but she feels very vulnerable in places. This is genuinely one of the best cast films there's been for a very long time, even when characters aren't given a lot of screen time they still completely embody their characters. Dan Fogler as Jacob is important as our eyes into this magical world, Samantha Morton and Ezra Miller are brilliant as witch hating Salemists, Colin Farrell is untrustworthy and incredibly intimidating as Director for magical security Percival Graves, then there's Alison Sudol as Tina's sister Queenie who is a real hark back to the stars of the golden age of Hollywood.

This wouldn't be much of a Fantastic Beasts film if it didn't feature some fantastic beasts, and fantastic they are. A sequence in Newt's personal zoo shows them in their great number, but the ones that really shine are Newt's Thunderbird called Frank, a glorious large golden bird that really gets his moment to soar towards the end. The most enjoyable of all the beasts though is definitely Newt's kleptomaniac platypus like creature, the Niffler. It is consistently enjoyable watching the adorably animated creature jumping around after anything shiny, which leads to some of the best slapstick comedy of the film.

It may seem, for the cynical, that this is a desperate cash grab to keep the Potter machine powering on, but whats so impressive about what Rowling has done is that she has moved to a completely different world, its 80 years before Potter, in a country we haven't seen before with wizards we've never met before. Its to the films strength that the Potter production team are kept in place, with Heyman producing and more importantly Yates directing, a director who established the visual style of the world that ran through the last 4 Potter Films. There is extensive work and time taken to show how different this world is, MACUSA isn't just another ministry for magic, there's a different dark wizard lurking behind the scenes and there's a very different attitudes towards Nomaj's. Unfortunately the new world means that a lot of time needs to be spent on world building for the audience, meaning this film has a lot of hard labour to do on the behalf of the films that are to come. 

That hard work means that this first film feels a little muddled in the end, there is just far too much going on at the same time, which means that so many characters are left underdeveloped. There is the sense that there are two stories running in this story and they only feel tangentially connected to one another. This has probably paved the way for superior sequels and Rowling barely scraped the surface of this world with Potter, there's going to be so much more from the wizarding world and its destined to be magic. 

(High 3 Stars)

Nocturnal Animals Review

It's been 7 years since Tom Ford's directorial debut, the Oscar nominated A Single Man. Since then Tom Ford has been incredibly busy running an incredibly successful fashion line and raising his family. His second feature Nocturnal Animals stars Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal and is well worth the 7 year wait.

Wealthy but unhappy art gallery owner Susan (Adams) receives a manuscript from her ex-husband Edward (Gyllenhaal), the manuscript is a violent story called Nocturnal Animals and is dedicated to her. The film has three stories intertwined with each other, there is the story of Susan in her vacuous unhappy life in LA, then there's the story featured in Edward's manuscript, and then the flashbacks to when Susan an Edward were married and the blossoming and deterioration of their relationship.

The first story of Susan's life in LA is really well observed, Ford is obviously commenting on the hollowness and emptiness of the lives that these people live. It would be very easy to become irritated by the people depicted, but these moments feel very self-aware so they're far more entertaining than you would expect it them be. The second story sees Gyllenhaal as the star of his own novel, Nocturnal Animals is the story of Tony who is travelling across Texas with his wife and teen daughter (Isla Fisher & Ellie Bamber) when they are run off the road by a group of red necks led by the incredibly scuzzy Ray Marcus (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). The altercation leads to Tony's wife and daughter being taken and him having to seek the help of Detective Carlos Holt, played exceptionally by Michael Shannon. The third story is Susan remembering her relationship with Edward and the events that led to them separating and how the violence of the book he's written may be to do with what she did to him.

In what is only is second film, Ford has to be lauded for the way he manages to get all three story lines to tie in to each other with such grace, plaudits should also be laid at the feet of his editor Joan Sobel who has pieced the film together in such a coherent manner. What's also impressive about Ford's direction is the way he seems to be operating in 3 different styles for each story, the high class life in LA is all sheen and glamour, then there is a tone of nostalgia and homeliness to the flashbacks, and an exceptional level of grunge and oppressive darkness to Edwards manuscript.

The performances across the board are wonderful, Adams does most of the heavy lifting and manages to be incredibly interesting even when long stretches of the film just involve watching her read. Gyllenhaal is exceptional in the way he tackles dual roles, though Tony is meant to be a reflection of his 'real' character Edward, he throws in enough differences to make them distinguishable from one another, particularly in the case of Tony he has some really powerhouse scenes of emotion. Then there's the rest of the cast, this is just one of those films that is littered with brilliant supporting performances, Aaron Taylor-Johnson is really creepy and intimidating, Michael Shannon is on scene stealing form as his chain smoking, stetson wearing detective. Then there's the likes of Armie Hammer, Andrea Riseborough, Michael Sheen, Jenna Malone and Laura Linney who are given little screen time but offer so much when they're there.

The problem with this film is that it seems emotionally stunted, there's lots of heft there that weighs the film down, but its difficult to actually feel for the any of the characters. It looks so slick, is acted so well and is put together so effectively that there isn't really any heart there. Ultimately this is a film that is very easy to admire but it is incredibly difficult to love.

(High 4 Stars)

Doctor Strange Review

Success often breeds opportunity to take risks. There is no stopping the cinematic machine that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and their box office smashes have led to them choosing more riskier projects and unknown quantities, all of which still have to tie into their overall plan for the universe. Their latest venture, the 14th installment in the MCU takes us to very uncharted territory in the form of mysticism, magic and the multiverse.

Doctor Strange is actually Doctor Stephen Strange, an incredibly gifted and also incredibly arrogant New York surgeon. He's cocky and big headed and also a rich playboy with the fast car and fancy watches to match. Heading speedily towards a night out on the town he skids off the road in dramatic fashion and winds up in hospital. The accident crushes his hands, after extensive work they are still irreparably damaged and will draw his career as a surgeon to an end. After exhausting all of his money on possible cures he winds up travelling to Nepal where he's heard of those who might be able to help him. There he meets The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) and her right hand man Master Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who introduce him to a world beyond his imagination.

Director Scott Derrickson has to be commended for his work on this film, constrained by the necessary back story he has to tell he has managed to create the best MCU origin story in their entire catalogue. To begin with the performances are a uniformly brilliant, Benedict Cumberbatch is a welcome addition to the Marvel family, his ark is similar to that of Tony Stark's in that he is an incredibly arrogant playboy who goes through a grueling experience and comes out better on the other side. The difference is that Strange gains his powers through study and work rather than the money that Stark throws around, Strange loses everything and doesn't really get it back by the end, he has to make sacrifices. The delivery by Cumberbatch of the cruelty shown by Strange in the earlier moments make his transition and sacrifice all the more effective. Tilda Swinton as a The Ancient One is a stroke of genius, she's an actress that gives off the sense of being other worldly, and if you forget all that its just an absolute pleasure to see Swinton kicking ass left right and centre. Mordo is probably the most complex of the characters, he is a devotee to the teachings of The Ancient One and when she turns out not to be all what she seems Mordo's moral conflict is sold brilliantly by Ejiofor in few scenes to do so. Not everyone gets their fair share of time, Rachel McAdams is as good as you'd expect her to be but she is lumbered with a thankless role as Strange's love interest. Once again the MCU is lumbered with a poor villain, though Mads Mikkelsen is always menacing, his Kaecilius falls onto the pile of other average but forgettable Marvel villains.


What elevates this above so many others of its type is the sheer ingenuity and beauty of the design in the VFX. There is a logic to all the magic that is used and this is encoded by its design, geometric shapes in keeping with the designs in the comic, also the animation of the cloak of levitation, which calls to mind the magic carpet from Aladdin in that it feels like a character in itself. Moments in the trailer were commented on by many as looking a bit like Inception, to compare the two would do Doctor Strange a monumental disservice. In Inception the city folded over a bit, here the cities are tilting inwards, inverting and mirroring, architecture transforming and the characters having to run and fight through all of it. It is without question some of the most impressive VFX work put to screen, combined with the choreography of the fighting it produces some of the most unique set pieces in recent times.

Marvel have always have a pretty rigid formula, no question that the formula works but when they take a risk and break or alter the formula it draws better results. Rather than the usual city destroying battle for a climax Doctor Strange inverts the formula by rebuilding a city as time move backwards, it could just be seen as a wry wink to the critics of the previous films, but when it conjures up something so visually titillating, its very difficult not to be impressed.

People keep posing the question as to when the Marvel bubble is going to burst. Asking that question is assuming that all the films are the same, although they feed into the same universe they are in fact very different, Doctor Strange is unlike others in in the MCU and Derrickson has made something incredibly difficult, look incredibly easy, with good box office numbers so far, audiences will be queuing round the corner for their next appointment with the Doctor.

(Low 5 Stars) 

I, Daniel Blake Review

Ken Loach has been making films for 50 years, at 80 years old he is in the habit of saying that his most recent film will be his last film, then he gets another idea and makes another one. His latest film I, Daniel Blake won the Palme d'Or at Cannes earlier this year and once again shows that 80 years old is no time to slow down when you're still at the top of your game.

I, Daniel Blake focuses on the story of Daniel Blake (Dave Johns), a talented carpenter and friendly bloke from Newcastle. Daniel has suffered a heart attack and his doctor has said that he is unfit for work, but in the opening scene we see Daniel put through the department for work and pensions fitness for work test and we witness the start of Daniel's frustrations. Whilst at the Job Centre Daniel meets young mum Katie (Hayley Squires) and her two children Daisy and Dylan who have recently moved up from London in order to find a council house, a friendship forms between the two based on helping each other in their time of hardship.

What Ken Loach is better at than most, is the ability to observe natural human behaviour without imposing on it with any noticable influence. His habit of using mostly unknown actors is crucial in audiences believing that these are real people, they are, of course, characters, but Loach makes you understand that though the characters are fiction and the events are constructed, they are a reflection of the society we have currently in Britain.

In the past, Loach's films have felt far too angry for them to be as affecting as they could be, but here Loach has toned down his anger in favour of overwhelming despair and frustration at the system. The references to 'sanctions' and 'decision makers' seem Orwellian, but they're also entirely honest. It helpfully doesn't demonise the workers of the DWP, they're merely cogs in a very cruel machine, and the likeability of Dave John's performance  means that we feel consistent empathy for him throughout, sharing in his endless frustrations.

Hayley Squires performance as Katie is incredibly affecting. She carries a weight on her the whole film with out it ever being too morose or downbeat, she's a mother trying her best in the most difficult of circumstances and all she really wants is to provide her children with the best lives possible. It's all the little moments of frustration and resignation in Squires performance that really sell the character.

Loach has had a 50 year career and one scene in I, Daniel Blake may well be the high watermark of his filmography. Much has been commented on how the food bank scene is too much, or a bit disingenuous, but they fail to take into account that Britain has seen a colossal rise in the number of families eating out of food banks since 2010. From the moment the scene begins it becomes a masterclass in capturing human behaviour, its Squires desperation that the scene focuses on, but its everyone of the extras and supporting actors who provide all of the little touches that make it so affecting.

Despite its subject matter, it is, as ever with a Loach film, not entirely doom and gloom. The fact that actor Dave Johns is more known as a comedian is incredibly beneficial to the film, all the aside moments with him and his neighbour give the film some much needed comedy. It's unfortunate that given all the subtlety that Loach operates in throughout the film, that he feels the need towards the end of the film to get on his soap box, in what is an incredibly natural film its a moment that feels disingenuous.

Loach may be circling on retirement, but at 80 years old there are few British voices in cinema with this much passion and talent to take the current establishment to task for the state of the country. As with all Loach films though, I, Daniel Blake is a call for people to come together in harsh times, its basically a far more intelligent and longer way of saying, "Fuck you, tories". 

(5 Stars)

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back Review

Jack Reacher is the popular fictional creation of author Lee Child. Reacher's adventures in literature now number at 21 outings and now 4 years after his cinematic debut comes the new Jack Reacher film, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.

After a brief opening which shows Reacher (Tom Cruise) successfully bringing down a human trafficking ring, Reacher returns to his old military headquarters to meet with the CO of his old team and the woman who has been helping him on his travels, Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders), only to discover that the Major has been detained under accusation of espionage. With larger things in play, Reacher breaks the Major out and goes on the run to find the evidence they need to clear her name.

It's interesting that we're even being given a sequel to the first Reacher film, given its rather lackluster display at the box office. It was, however, successful enough on streaming, DVD/Blu-Ray to warrant a sequel, it's a shame then that this comes off as such a disappointment. Performance wise its quite strong, despite the protests of the teeny Tom Cruise being cast as Reacher in the first film, it seems that he's really inhabiting the character well, the small stature actually comes off as a strength to the character, Reacher is quietly threatening as opposed to the 6ft 4inch behemoth from the books. The addition of Cobie Smulders as the strong willed Major Susan gives Reacher a fresher dynamic in this outing, and the military gender dynamic and discussions between the two are really well played.

What was great about the first Reacher outing was that it felt retro and very 90s, but it had enough flair and quirk about it to make it worthwhile watching. With Werner Herzog as the villain, a brilliant car chase and Tom Cruise being an incredibly unlikable hero it was a really enjoyable watch. The worst crime the sequel commits is just how monumentally ordinary it is. It feels way too generic in every scene, there's not enough interest in what Reacher is up against, and the set pieces are monumentally ordinary. Ed Zwick has taken on directing duties from Christopher McQuarrie, and all Ed Zwick feels like is a safe pair of hands.

There are another 19 books that could possibly be adapted for more Reacher outings, but with something this ordinary, its highly doubtable that there's enough intrigue to warrant even a third.

(3 Stars)   

The Girl with all the Gifts Review

The world is currently overrun with zombies, not in the literal sense thank goodness, but the zombies are deeply ingrained in the cultural zeitgeist (yeah that's right; I just pretentiously used the word zeitgeist). With The Walking Dead now in its seventh series and a spin off series in its second, it seems as though rotting corpses are hard to avoid. It's incredible then that the latest zombie flick The Girl with all the Gifts manages to bring something new to the table.

Set in a Britain overrun by infected zombie like creatures called ‘hungries’, the film focuses on Melanie (Sennia Nenua), a young girl who along with a group of other children is kept locked and restrained by some form of military outlet in what we later discover to be a bunker, all watched over by the surly Sgt. Parks (Paddy Considine). Melanie is a sweet girl who is incredibly affectionate towards her teacher Miss Jutineau (Gemma Arterton). The bases resident scientist Dr Caldwell (Glenn Close) believes Melanie might be the key to finding the cure to the infection, because Melanie and the other children are in fact young ‘hungries’ with increased mental capacities.

Zombie films work best when they are used as a mirror to reflect genuine concerns in the contemporary societies that they are made in, Romero’s Night of the Living Dead isn’t just a zombie film it’s a comment on U.S. racism, Dawn of the Dead isn’t just a zombie film it’s really a comment on consumerism, and Colm McCarthy’s The Girl with all the Gifts is much more than just a zombie film. In a world where humans are declining in numbers at a faster rate the young ‘hungries’ that Melanie represents are the future, they’re the next stage in evolution and the real reason that people like Dr Caldwell are afraid of them is because they’re afraid that their time is up and the next generation are there to replace them. It’s also about how children come to terms with what adults say is the gospel, Melanie learns to think for herself as the film goes on, and her defining revelation at the end brings the film a really stark and remarkable conclusion.

Content aside the film should be heralded for its style, though a seasoned director of television it’s hard to believe that this is Colm McCarthy’s first feature film. McCarthy adopts a lot of the style employed by Danny Boyle in 28 Days Later but also brings his own unique take on it. There are some genuinely impressive shots and set pieces that elevate this film far above its budget. There’s also a very intriguing approach taken with the ‘hungries’, the source of infection has come from plants so the design of the infected is intriguingly unfamiliar. The plant based source of infection also provides the city based sequences with a chilling Day of the triffids feel only aided by its London based setting.

Performance wise Colm McCarthy has collected and incredibly strong cast who really deliver. Paddy Considine is great as Sgt Parks, he is surly and distant but is perhaps given the biggest ark of the film in how his feelings change over the course of the film, its only Considine’s subtlety that makes it work. Glenn Close is perhaps the biggest problem with the film, she is maybe the films only living antagonist and despite Close giving it her all she is poorly written and for the most part comes across as Dr Exposition, she is the embodiment of why plot information has to be shared amongst characters otherwise you just have one lumbered with a load of information to impart every 10 minutes or so. Gemma Arterton is utterly delightful as Miss Justineau, she’s no damsel in distress and can more than hold her own alongside Sgt Parks, but there’s a grace and elegance to her that makes Melanie’s infatuation with her seem justified. Then there’s the newcomer Sennia Nenua, this film rises or falls on how good her performance is, and fortunately she’s exceptional. There is this beautiful charm to her that makes her incredibly endearing and watching her innocently discovering the world beyond the bunker is a consistent delight. But Melanie is also part monster and intelligent and calculated, there are moments when you see her munching down on a dead pigeon and a dead cat, but the most horrifying moment of the film is when she protects Sgt Parks and Miss Justineau by beating to death a feral child hungry.

McCarthy has created a really fascinating film, its small but feels much bigger, its old hat but feels completely new, it’s a complete zombie film but also isn’t a zombie film at all, at the end of it all McCarthy might well have made the film with all the gifts. (5 Stars)

Hell or High Water Review

There was a time when Hollywood’s go to film was the western, with so much desert around they were cheap and easy to churn out in large numbers, so easy in fact that they got worst and worst until they seemed to stop making them. Then came the revisionist westerns, and in more recent years the modern western, they might not feature cowboy’s vs Indians, but the modern westerns have a passion for the south with films such as No Country for Old Men and now David McKenzie’s Hell or High Water. The film features Chris Pine and Ben Foster as bank robbing brothers who are hitting banks in an attempt to raise enough money to save their family farm, Jeff Bridges is the Ranger on their tail.

                What’s to obviously exceptional about McKenzie’s film is that it seems like a direct descendant to the westerns of old, a film whose views on the present Texas reflect on how it was formed by the Texas of old. This is most notable in the conversations between Bridges and his part native American partner Alberto, in one moment Alberto lectures Bridges on how the America now doesn’t really belong to those who think it’s being taken away from them because it was never theirs to begin with, it’s the luxury of the modern western that it can have this reflection. There is also brilliant social commentary on how the American frontier of old that Pine and Foster represent is being taken over by corporations and denying them what they feel is rightfully theirs.

                Despite being a native of Northumberland England, McKenzie captures that sense of the south perfectly, it’s a sparse landscape and sleepy Texan towns populated with quaint local Texans, it’s almost beautiful in its lack of beauty. He also directs with a genial sense of pace that allows the contents of the frame to do most of the talking.

                The performances are all exceptional, Ben Foster plays the Joe Pesci type role in the sense that he's the manic liability who though fiercely loyal also feels dangerous to everybody. Jeff Bridges essentially plays Jeff Bridges in a Rangers uniform, but there's something so intensely watchable about Bridges that it's rarely anything other than brilliant to see him up on screen.The real surprise of the cast is the performance of Chris Pine, there’s never been any question that he’s a good actor, but he’s never been given a role with enough flesh on it to sufficiently demonstrate this, fortunately here he can really show off his chops and its really impressive stuff.

                It’s not flawless, as ever with films set in the south it seems to have a very frustrating attitude towards its female characters, there are few given enough screen time to register, and when they do they’re never entirely in a positive light. The set pieces are genuinely very exciting and well-orchestrated, but it often strays into familiarity, and when you start thinking of another film that’s done it better, then the film begins to lose some of its charm.

           Ultimately this is the best western you’ll see at the cinema this year, it feels Cohen-esque but also like a film that could have been better if it was actually in the hands of the Cohen’s, but with a cracking soundtrack and some decent performances this is well worth a watch. (High 4 Stars)

Green Room Review

Jeremy Saulnier knows tension, he knows how to take something that feels well-worn and injects it with something dark, violent, bloody and bloody good. His last feature was the film Blue Ruin which completely reinvigorated the revenge thriller and introduced a fascinating screen presence in the form of Macon Blair. Saulnier now brings us Green Room which features a young punk band who perform a gig at neo-nazi club, they stumble upon something they shouldn’t which leads to a violent stand-off in increasingly violent circumstances.

                The set-up to this film is one that’s been seen before, what’s brilliant about it is the way that Saulnier manages the escalation of the situation. The slow build up to the first moment of shocking on screen violence is incredibly intense; it’s that tension that gives the violence a far more powerful affect. As with Blue Ruin Saulnier has an incredible talent of undercutting genre tropes, he’s able to bring the subject matter down to a more real world aesthetic, there’s no grand plan from the band once they’re trapped in the room, they come up with a new plan every couple of minutes and when they put the plans into practice they consistently fail. The sense of havoc is also felt in those enacting the violence there’s a high sense of pressure and their panic at the situation getting out of hand is just as prevalent.

                Macon Blair returns for his third collaboration with Saulnier, Blair is impressive in a smaller role as a man who clearly feels out of place within the neo-nazi setting, his face is exceptionally expressive and he holds so much confliction between faux-authority and panic. The band all put in decent performances, the most notable of which is Anton Yelchin as the bands guitarist who is essentially the lead of the film, Yelchin shows all the reasons he’ll be sadly missed since his recent death, he’s brilliant at portraying emotionally vulnerable but driven characters. The problem with the band is the chemistry, though individually they seem good they don’t entirely convince you that they’re a band, they come across as just a little too mismatched. Then there is the most interesting piece of casting in the film, the neo-nazi leader played by none other than Sir Patrick Stewart. It’s fascinating casting but his sense of calm and seniority works entirely well, he’s quietly terrifying.

                There’s a lot about this film that might put people off, most notably the violence. Saulnier needs to be lauded for treating genre films with the respect that they deserve, he shows respect to those that have gone before but also offers something completely fresh. Its intense, beautifully shot and well-acted, can’t wait to see what he does next. (5 Stars)

The Witch Review

Horror has been on a pretty good run recently, films such as It Follows, The Babadook, and to a lesser extent, the output from Blumhouse Productions. Following on from them comes the latest horror film Robert Eggers The Witch.

Set in 17^th century New England, Eggers film sees a family of puritans banished from their community seeing them set up their own homestead on the edges of a forest, the likes of which only ever seems to be featured in horror films. Something evil lurks in those woods, when the families youngest child is taken into the woods the family believe it  to have been taken by a wolf, but has events unfold darker forces seem to be playing a hand in matters. Eggers talent shines best in the tone he manages to capture in the film. The historical verisimilitude lent by its period setting is grey and harsh and draws all the necessary connotations of the witch trials and other creations such as The Crucible. More so than the visual aesthetic of the film is the impressiveness of the atmosphere it creates, the sense in every shot that something is lurking outside of the frame borders on oppressive viewing, its a tone that prevents the film, for the most part, from straying into tedium.

The performances are brilliant, Ralph Ineson is impressive as the stoic puritan head of the family, and Kate Dickies is also brilliant as the mother whose performance draws to mind the hysterical mother from Carrie. The children provide able performances; with the films lead Anna Taylor-Joy really shining in a very difficult role. The performances are even more impressive when you take into account that Eggers script calls on them to speak in 17^th century parlance, which though it starts out as a little alienating it settles into a neat rhythm and becomes completely unnoticeable.

There are those who have spoken of this film as a high watermark for recent horror cinema, but that very much depends on what you want from a horror film. Personally what I want from a horror film is to be scared; I want not only to jump but to still be scared weeks later at the thought of what made me jump in the first place. The Witch is many things but it’s not really that scary. Eggers film conjures some interesting images but nothing that’s particularly horrifying or anything that invokes terror. It is perhaps best viewed as an exceptional family drama where the witch herself is merely just providing the atmosphere.

For a debut film, Eggers has gone about creating something technically very impressive. His eye for detail and ability to create an accurate family dynamic is something to aspire to, but ultimately I just want him to scare me more. (High 3 Stars) 

Sing Street Review

Films about starting a band are like starting a band in the real world, the ones that work understand that it’s all about the beautiful struggle of creating rather than the excitement of covering. 2 years ago, Lenny Abrahamson’s Frank showed the emotional beauty of the process of creating music, and this year John Carney shows us in his latest film Sing Street that no one makes this type of film better than him.

Following on from Carney’s Once and Begin Again, which also focused on talented musicians, Sing Street is the story of Dublin teenager Connor forced to move to a rougher school due to his family’s financial situation. Not fitting in at his new school Connor takes solace in music, he sets out to start a band to impress a girl, the only reason anyone has ever started a band ever.

What John Carney seems to understand better than any director is the sheer power of the musical process. In Once music was a force to create love, in Begin Again music was a means of redemption, and in Sing Street music is used as means to discover identity and come of age, as well as winning the girl obviously. What comes through much more here is Carney’s brilliant sense of dead pan comedy, when three of the band go to find “the only black lad in Dublin” to be in their band, their innocence in their nature is charming and hilarious. Carney’s stroke of genius is using complete unknowns as the stars for his film, the fact that the characters are played by Irish lads who are musically talented means that their characters feel completely genuine. Carney is smart enough to know where the film needs weight in performance and provides the film with some excellent supporting performances from the likes of Aiden Gillen, Maria Doyle Kennedy and, most importantly Jack Reynor. Reynor plays Connors older brother Brendan, a pot smoking college burnout his passion and knowledge of music is what spurns Connor on. To a certain extent his Brendan is a little like Philip Seymour Hoffman in Almost Famous spurning on the younger generation with their knowledge, the difference is the weight that Brendan is given towards the end. Where there are lines that make you laugh Brendan’s speech towards the end will completely bowl you over.

This film rises and falls on the music though, and Sing Street absolutely soars with this soundtrack. There are hits from The Clash, The Cure, The Jam, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and many more. What’s brilliant is how these artists continue to change the bands style and their songs, from Duran Duran and their poppy fun, to The Cure helping the band find their “happy-sad”. The original songs provided for the film include the likes of Riddle of the model and the brilliant Drive it like you stole it elevate the film the way an original band are better than a cover band. This might not be a the most original film in the world but its charm and fun and passion for music is what elevates John Carney’s work from others, you’ll be singing Drive it like you stole it for weeks after. (Low 5 Stars)