Reviews

Interesting anthology that has a lot of passion and creativity put behind it although you can tell it is in early stages of working out kinks and different problems for example how when some scenes involve dialogue but suddenly turn to subtitles which was jarring although this becomes less and less used throughout the show as it goes along. I quite like the atmosphere and story, reminds me of a combination of Welcome to Night Vale and something like Gravity Falls which I enjoy. The show isn't perfect and there aren't many episodes but it's a interesting horror show with cool but basic animation that I'm looking forward to see develop over time. Check it out, it's worth your time, it isn't that long either.

Whilst not just as good as Get Out, Us is a film I really can't stop thinking about. I kind of liked it, I kind of didn't and honestly, I'm a bit conflicted. I think the cinematography and concept are absolutely fantastic. The acting is pretty good and the score is great. The editing is probably the weaker parts of a really damn good film and really lets down the script and a lot of the execution.

I think some of the script is half-baked with plot-holes but what it does with the concept itself feels like something out of a great short story. The main actress is fantastic honestly, she does a great job and what happens at the end really turns the plot on its head and I'll definitely be having a different experience in the next watch which is great.

I really love how bizarre this film is, I love the ambiguity and the direction. I love the style and execution. It's a sort of creepy style which I've loved in other short films which hasn't really been explored until now. There are some great unlaying themes in there as well but it still definitely has its problems especially in the sound editing (the soundtrack is great but it is overused in parts where it didn't need to be) and the editing itself especially in several cuts between the past and the present.

In the end, though, I see myself really coming to love it on a second watch, I honestly can't stop thinking about it even though there were some things that could be better but this film really shows that Jordan Peele is a force to be reckoned with especially in Horror. I would love to see him tackle other genres or Horror sub-genres. If you liked Get Out, you'll probably like this film too, it's a really interesting film and it will be talked about for years to come. I give this movie a Not Perfect but Very Interesting/10.

A Boy and His Dog is a dark and misogynistic film but on principle. What it does excellently is show how dark the human mind can be. After the end of the world, the only thing that is on the mind of the main characters is food and sex and in a lot of ways, that is exactly what I would except from a very chaotic world, it's represented this way intentionally and paints a great example of what could happen when the world goes to hell.

Am I saying this world is a good film, not really. Whilst the first half is really interesting and adapts the book in a very good way where the world and characters feel realistic to what may happen in that scenario. Except for the main female character, who whilst fleshed out as someone who has control over the main character is represented in a way that she is still objectified and treated as a sex-object in this movie.

All in all though, you've really got to put everything in the concept of that the characters are just doing what their instincts tell them. There wouldn't be any education on land, they are just like animals in this world with the only intention to eat and reproduce.

In that way it's an essential Post-Dystopian film even in the many flaws such as several really strange underground sections which aren't as fleshed out as the relationship with him and his dog and their journey for survival.

The film's context is extremely dark and unsettling especially at the end of the film where it just leaves you to imagine what happened to one of the characters. Not a Sci-Fi masterpiece by any degree but if you are looking for an interesting and kind of twisted Sci-Fi film that shows the real nature of what may happen if we were to live in a world after the apocalypse.

As a fan of Thrillers and especially serial killer thrillers, I really enjoyed this movie. There's some bad at acting at times, the script sometimes feels like the characters are revealing their backstory out of the blue but it really isn't that forced. The film also has a predictable ending.

Taking all the bad elements out of it like the terrible score and predictable ending, it's a really good serial killer thriller that has an interesting plot and a great performance by David Tennant. The main actor is pretty good as well, the story and flow is also really well realised and the director does a great job building the situation and horror of finding someone chained up in a home.

The portrayal of the crime and the serial killer especially is what makes the film stand out against the many standard serial killer thriller movies. We aren't just given another FBI or cop movie but see the crime in the eyes of another criminal (who is relatable and we can even sympathise with his situation especially as the film progresses).

It's not a great movie, it does definitely have its problems but if you want an interesting, well-made thriller to watch on Friday night or the rest of the weekend, then I recommend it. Just make sure to keep your expectations moderate; it's really good but not trying to change the game. One of the better thrillers I've seen in a while, I give it a read the review/10.

I love The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II but I have to admit, this is the one I love the most out of the trilogy. It's bonkers and totally out there. It balances great aspects of the direction and script from the first movie and just turns it up to 11. Sure it is no longer a Horror Comedy and more so just a Comedy but it still balances a lot of tge elements that make the franchise great and creates something unique from it, instead acting as a parody of the dark fantasy movies and giving it a great strange Sam Raimi spin.

The film is just iconic, so many great lines, Bruce Campbell is at his very best and insane here and the franchise is at its very best script and direction wise. God dammit, I just love this film, it's just cult film at its finest. With so many great lines of dialogue and both Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi at there finest, well at least in my opinion.

What can I say, this one is my favourite, it's what I want in a film from the Evil Dead franchise; a strange, dark and hilarious passion-project of a film with great direction, editing, special effects and not to mention the hammy dialogue of the best kind.

Great movie, always a fun watch, hammy and epic in all the right ways and just an absolute iconic fantasy film. I give this movie a Hail to the King Baby/10.

If the Evil Dead is a great Horror passion project, the Evil Dead II is a masterclass of a sequel. Taking all the passion and unique style from the original film, this film is the refining and perfection of that. Whilst we again get to see Ash go insane, we get see to see a man trapped in the house for a second time, no way out, there's no escape to the evil.

What can I say though, the film is just a great Horror Comedy, it mixes the style, the stranger elements and refines them in a way that is funny but still keeps the same style of scares. It also holds one of the most iconic characters in the whole of cinema. The script, the effects, the direction and all the elements of the film are just incredibly well done.

There are also problems I have with the film such as the way that the whole of the last film feels retconned due to the recap they had to make because of Sam Raimi and Co not having the rights to the footage from the first film but that's just a small part of the movie and allows it to stand on its own as a great sequel.

Great Horror Comedy, on par or even better then the first, truly iconic. I give this movie a Groovy/10.

The passion and skill that went into the film-making here is great, it takes many of the usual tropes and enhances them in its own way (especially with Sam Raimi's fantastic style of direction). The effects are also great but in the way they stay charming and aren't trying to be realistic (using a more Claymation style of effects which I love to see).

As a person in a love/hate relationship with Horror it's a film that takes a Hammer Horror type of style and makes something new with it. It's a unique Horror film and one of the stand-outs of the genre.

There's a reason why Evil Dead is touted as one of the Classics. It takes a small budget, hard work and makes a passion project that still holds up to this day. It's also interesting to see with how the Deadites mess with Ash and slowly drive him insane.

Glad to finally get round to it, great Horror and mid-night movie, I give it a read the review/10.

An Evening with Beverly Luff Lunn is a strange movie with disjointed dialogue, weird acting with some strange but great cinematography that's just incredibly fun to watch. The movie has a simple plot and has many elements that are similar to a parody of a Wes Anderson movie but it's just something unique and interesting in its weirdness that doesn't try to be pretentious whilst doing so.

It's just one of those films that won't be in my top 5 of 2018 but I definitely don't regret watching. It's very stylish and weird as you would expect if you watched or even heard about The Greasy Strangler. The director has a unique vision and sense of style in the way that he makes his films that isn't remarkable but it's hard to look away from. Which, whilst disconnected and strange throughout most of the film actually has a touching ending.

Tired of waiting for the next live-action Wes Anderson or Edgar Wright film, want something that feels simple but weird and crazy at the same time then this will be for you. It's a great film to watch if you want a few laughs or just to watch something totally out there. A very good film will rewatch again, I'm going to give it a read the review/10.

Akira personifies what makes animation and the cyberpunk sub-genre of Sci-Fi great. The imagery and storytelling are fantastic here and we really feel the intimate effect of disasters on the movie's characters and the people within that world. It looks at the past and future and looks at the effects of the nuclear devastation of Hiroshima. Many Science Fiction themes are presented and in a great way even though some of it feels very condensed due to the story being adapted from a Manga series (Japanese comicbook).

This is what I love about Akira, it's just a true testament to visual storytelling and the creating of a fully developed world with interesting and developed characters that seemingly have basic personalities. It's a film that feels timeless, feels like something that could easily be made today with a distinct form of visual presentation. If you haven't checked this film out and read this, please give it a go, even if you aren't a fan of anime or animation.

Breaking Bad is without a doubt a show that deserves the 10/10 rating. Everything about it is just incredible right from the very beginning of the show (with a fantastic pilot) and never breaks down in its scenic drive to the finish. The show has a unique use of cinematography, story and a fantastic soundtrack but where the story really shines from most other shows is in how real these characters and world feels along with how the show never forgets about the consequences of the character's actions and how they can never truly get away with what they did in their past.

In this way, the writing is some of best in film or television, every character never loses track of who they are and their personalities even as these horrible things happen to them or their loved ones throughout the whole show. Every character is just fantastically thought out, written and incredibly well acted. You never feel as if they are just actors playing characters for even one second, they always seem to embody that person which makes the drama and crime even more emotional, disturbing and gut-punching.

There's nothing bad I could really say about the show apart from maybe some episodes in series 1 were a tiny bit slow (which is totally made up for in how it is just setting up the premise/characters) and that some of the science early on isn't entirely realistic (which you wouldn't notice that much if you don't practice chemistry) but that's only a minor nit-pick that doesn't effect the rest of the show.

The show just feels unique in how gripping and disturbed the balance between the disturbing nature of bad versus worse (there's no real good guys) and how no one really wins in this type of situation. The DEA can't beat the cartel and the cartel can't get the DEA off their back. It's a perfect anti-villain show and character drama that never loses a sense of the story and thriller elements. It's not just focused on making one thing good, it focuses on making everything great from it's characters, story progression, writing, cinematography and acting, it fully deserves to be classified as a near perfect show.

If you haven't seen this, watch this show, it is absolutely fantastic. You can watch one a night, you can binge watch it like I did but no matter which way, it is just a great experience and character study.

I'm usually a fan of independent or concept films much like this one. I love Greek mythology and what could be considered as surrealist films, they are some of my favourite in fact but whilst this film is shot beautifully and has some great music, by the end of the film, I just couldn't see more in it than as a pretentious mess which has an interesting concept but entirely wastes it in the effort to be considered as strange.

I won't go into the story because its simple and like Eraserhead, its the least interesting part of the movie. Unlike Eraserhead, however, it actually has no subtext to back up the reason for creating the movie rather than adapting Greek myths into the modern day. It's a simple revenge story with supernatural themes that is never explained but is only shown to the smallest of degrees. This tell don't show is also a big reason for why I couldn't get into the movie. It tells you about this briefly but it never goes into that story to any significant degree, not even in a way to keep it subtle.

The worst part really is that there's some very good scenes that get their very disturbing feeling but the pacing and how dramatized to the extreme some of the other scenes are, I just couldn't take the movie seriously for a big portion of the run time. It's even worse because I wanted to love this movie, maybe I should give it another try and think it over a bit more but I just keep questioning why it just didn't interest me in the characters or the story which just makes the surreal and disturbing elements feeling just feel like filler.

In short, I didn't hate it but couldn't like it or love it even as a huge lover of art-film and surrealist film in general. Maybe it just wasn't just right for me. There's scenes I like, the beginning is great but as it went along, I just got less interested with each passing minute of the film's progression. All this ending with a diner scene so pretentious that it nearly ruined the whole movie for me, it was just film-student like quality in a film that started off incredibly unique and interesting. But even though a film is unique and can be disturbing doesn't mean that its good and here it sadly wasn't the case, at least in my opinion.

This is probably going to be a controversial review but I expected so much more from this director from his other work but this just disappointed me more and more as it went along.

If I were to simply describe Mandy it would be as a dark, twisted but beautiful nightmare. The story is simple but that's not a bad thing, it's how the story is told and how creative the movie expresses that story. This is one of the most beautifully shot movies I've seen, it's a full on psychedelic story of lost love and revenge. It's a movie on crack, it may not be perfect, the first half is especially slow, (although the cinematography is incredible). Once you get to the 2nd half, it becomes something of an action masterpiece.

Nick Cage gives his best performance here, in fact all the actors bring their A-game here in playing these vulnerable yet despicable people. Although their performances are secondary to the spectacle and actor, the characters are simple but again, this isn't a bad thing. It's not for everyone but if you are slightly twisted and want a perfect movie for Halloween that isn't just another cliché horror movie or you just want something completely unique that embodies the feeling of listening to Heavy Metal, then this is the movie for you.

The directorial debut of Cory Finley, Thoroughbreds is a beautifully twisted thriller with touches of dark comedy. I've been meaning to watch this movie for quite a while and I'm definitely glad to have finally done so. As a long time lover of thrillers, it's great to see an interpretation of a realistic sociopath as one of the main characters, that isn't just a killer like Hannibal Lector or Patrick Bateman, with Olivia Cooke playing the role perfectly. All around the acting is really good, especially Anna Taylor-Joy (The Witch) and Anton Yensin (his last role that makes me wish we could get so much more from him, he's great in this movie). Another fantastic element is the direction and cinematography, the movie looks fantastic, it never shows too much or too less, it just leaves enough there for you to paint the full picture. The main aspect that I may criticise is the flow and story of the movie. At moments the flow can jolt around a lot, split up into several chapters (which I do enjoy films doing but that's just a personal thing). I won't spoil the film here because I always believe that you should go in with the least information possible (especially when reviewing on sites like Letterboxd or IMDb). The story is a simple, one of the friends (Olivia Cooke playing sociopathic Amanda) enters into each other's lives and decide to kill Anna Taylor-Joy's step-father, solving each other's problems in the process. There's an underlying metaphor of empathy and how people who lack it are more likely to succeed which is handled in a disjointed way but wasn't the main idea of the movie.

All in all, it is a fantastic debut film by writer and director Cory Finley with some great cinematography, acting, direction and dialogue with a flow that feels sometimes all over the place and a simple enough story. The main thing about the movie is being dark drama with comedic elements and that's not going to be for everyone but if you like a dark, dead-pan, well-shot and well-written thriller, then this is for you.

To find out this was an interactive experience confused me initially but by the end of the experience, I was incredibly impressed. It's something that only Black Mirror could do to the degree it has, creating an interesting Sci-Fi mystery set in the '80s whilst allowing the user to make those choices but playing those choices into the movie. What it is something completely new, you morph your own experiences, solving the story by going back and fixing your decisions.

You control the character but the movie tackles this story, they know you are controlling them and you make for an ending they can't control. A choose your own adventure film with a sci-fi twist and from Black Mirror, I couldn't wish for more. You make your own experiences with it, your own pathway but you still have a good and bad ending. It gives you both the illusion of choice and the ability to choose much like the main character.

It's honestly hard to rate or discuss something like this. It's dark, it's interesting and it gives you the illusion of choice and for sci-fi, that's exactly what I wanted. Charlie Brooker may have outdone himself this time and created something that I'll be coming back to for a long time. It's not something I want from all films, far from it, it's fun for certain things but after a while it gets stale but for something like this, it's a great idea done right. As a film, sometimes stale, as a experience and meta story, it's something fantastic and new.

So I've been pretty uninterested in this years "Wizarding World" film, it looked fine and it sounded like an interesting premise. The problem of this movie is that it has interesting moments but can't focus on what could have made it a potentially great prequel to the franchise by filling it with too many characters and trying to set up the next movie. I'm not saying you shouldn't go see this movie, it's fine but very boring.

It's basically just your typical blockbuster sequel. Lack of interesting characters (except for an excellent version of Dumbledore played by Jude Law), a plot so thin but bloated and a script that jolts the viewer from scene to scene without any sort of transition.

There's nothing that I could get into in the movie. I tried, I really did. It's a shame that it's very well done on a technical level because it's very well acted, directed and shot. There's some great acting in here and character moments but the actual story seems so pointless and disjointed that I just couldn't care about it.

Something like this should like should have been a story between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, put the ministry in there, maybe have Newt help him a bit but because of all the characters from the last movie, the movie goes nowhere. It's a blockbuster franchise that no longer feels magical and something calling itself, "The Wizarding World," shouldn't feel this way.

A few days ago I stumbled across this film, I expected nothing but it looked interesting and so I gave it a watch. What I got was a well told Basque folktale, that whilst not impressive acting or some visuals (although for such a small budget, even though goofy, the practical effects are really well done) but impressed me is how unique the story is. You get a sense of morality vs religion, which was especially important In the 19th Century of where this film is set. All in all, its a very entertaining movie, you get an interesting story that gives some damn good Horror Fantasy elements that were often gripping.

The thing is, the movie is interesting, especially if you're interested in mythology or movies like the Witch (2016) or Pan's Labyrinth. Whilst not as good as those two, especially in the acting at points, I was definitely entertained. Good movie to watch during the lead up to Halloween. It may not be a film that needs in-depth analysis, I'm not going to spoil anything because that would ruin the experience for you but give it a watch. I was personally mixed on the film, I enjoyed it a lot but some elements were underwhelming. Looking for a foreign folk tale, this movie is probably for you, it'd recommend it, there's some great vision here, come in with an open mind and you won't be disappointed.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia could be described as the funny exploits of several asshole friends that own a bar. Whilst the show is exactly that, it has much more in store and to unveil under each episode. This is a show where over the twelve current seasons of this show, there has never been an episode that has failed to land a single laugh and that's probably in how layered and well written each script has been for this show. They take time to write each episode which layered upon that we have excellent chemistry from this cast that fully embody each of their respective roles without a missed beat. It's a show that never feels stale and genuinely deserves all the praise it gets. Whilst this is a great comedy and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who was interested, it's not for everyone. When this show is raunchy, it gets very raunchy; when it gets dark, it gets very dark, it's a show that holds no bars. In this way, you could compare it to South Park to some extent and it deserves its status as one of the best comedies of the 21st Century along with it.

It's Always Sunny is an incredibly funny and smartly written satire of Sitcoms that has no sign of slowing down. If you haven't yet, go watch the show, you won't forget it; it's a humorous experience unlike no other on television.