Contrary Corner: ‘Rush’ really grinds my gears
Released in September of last year, two-way racing biopic (bi-biopic?) Rush revved its way straight to the top of the UK box office. At first one might assume it owes its undeserved popularity to a...
View ArticleContrary Corner: Give ‘Spring Breakers’ a break
‘Worst film ever’. ‘WTF James Franco wasn’t even hot’. These are just snippets of disgruntled Twitter estrogen from ‘Beliebers’ rabidly foaming at the fingertips after watching Spring Breakers....
View ArticleContrary Corner: Shia LaBeouf – actual genius?
Shia LaBeouf. Child actor turned Hollywood superstar. Tooth puller. Beard grower. Bag wearer. Artist. Plagiarist. Cannibal. Ok, so perhaps allegations of LaBeouf’s carnivorous activities are the...
View ArticleCornerhouse Pick of the Week: Nymphomaniac
Before I start, let me get rid of the elephant in the room: Sex. We have all had it. There we go. I was introduced to the charmingly controversial Danish art house director Lars Von Trier first...
View ArticleContrary Corner: Best picture? Not exactly…
I was pretty excited to see 12 Years a Slave. The vast amount of hype around it, and the fact that every reviewer from here to Sweden seemed to be saying that it was “the greatest movie ever”, meant...
View ArticlePreview: Transcendence
Cinematographer Wally Pfister has been realizing the worlds of director Christopher Nolan since Memento in 2000, having also collaborated with the director on his Batman trilogy and 2002’s Insomnia....
View ArticleContrary Corner: Dead Genre Walking
Revered film critic Roger Ebert once claimed that ‘every film is only as good as its villain’. Whilst this is a sweeping generalization: less dramatic films tend to hinge less on ideological conflict,...
View ArticleContrary Corner: animated gems you missed
I have expressed this before and I’m sure to express it again, I love animated films. They’re brilliant. But at the risk of sounding like an anti-mainstream, hipster arse, I have to say that the real...
View ArticleContrary Corner: The Fresh Prince of Bad Movies
This week, with the revelation that Will Smith is now older than the actor who played Uncle Phil was at the start of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, I finally reached the revelation which is truly heart...
View ArticleYou Can’t Handle the Truth! — Greatest Movie Ever?
I have a little test to work out if a person knows what they’re talking about when it comes to cinema—I ask them, “What is the greatest movie ever made?” If they give a definite answer, they have no...
View ArticleThe Moral Responsibility of Film
Last year’s Academy screenings saw the ‘ludes and lewdness of Martin Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street maligned by those perched on the high horse, with one screenwriter/moral crusader (who presumably...
View ArticleYou Can’t Handle the Truth! – New Girl
There are so many things in life I am simply incapable of understanding. Why some young men wear tank tops in public, how Smells Like Teen Spirit is regarded as a brilliant song and why people care so...
View ArticleYou Can’t Handle the Truth – action has lost its traction
Action has become the least compelling film genre of the lot; by definition, action movies must include dynamic sequences and a resourceful protagonist of sorts. However, more recently we witness a...
View ArticleYou Can’t Handle the Truth! – Political Movies
Western society is currently going through tough times. It has to completely rethink its culture, economic and political system. Yet such turbulences may cause our society to evolve into something less...
View ArticleWhy so Fanboy?
To many film scholars and casual movie-goers, the proposed question is sacrilegious. In their minds there is no comprehensible way that the best comic book film ever made and arguably one of the...
View ArticleEverybody Loves Louis
Listen to every podcast, every roundtable, every whisper in the wind: Louis CK is loved by all. Despite being one of the highest grossing comedians in the world, he is, undoubtedly, a man of the...
View ArticleThe Oscar that cried wolf
An outrage! A Travesty! I blame Obama! These are just some of the cries of indignation over the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio has not won an Oscar in his heroic career. It pains me to say, but there’s no...
View ArticleYou Can’t Handle the Truth – Laughter Etiquette
Every frequent cinemagoer will be aware of the dramatic effect which audience reactions can have on a particular cinematic experience. Whilst the sense of shared viewing can add an extra dimension to a...
View ArticleYCHTT: Has Film Reviewing Gone Too Far?
Over the past few months I have come to question the relevance of film criticism in its purest form, the 500 word (or thereabouts) review. If someone is committed to watching a movie then they probably...
View ArticleYou Can’t Handle the Truth! – JLaw’s overhyped career
We all know how it goes: A fresh personality appears in a fresh teen saga and through media incubation grows to achieve stardom of ridiculous proportions. Just like so many before her, this is how...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....