Author: Rich Cline Page 50
Powder Room
While women in the audience may find resonance in the comical prickliness, this film remains more of a stage play than an actual movie. Indeed, playwright Hirons has adapted the script from her play When...
Movie Review posted on 6th December 2013
Homefront
With a powerhouse cast and an anaemic script, this violent revenge thriller never quite gets off the ground. It's watchable for the character detail, but resolutely refuses to make any logical sense as it charges...
Movie Review posted on 5th December 2013
Nebraska
After travelling to Hawaii with George Clooney for The Descendants, Payne returns to middle America for this gentle, enjoyable exploration of family connections. Featuring an award-winning performance from Bruce Dern, the film harks back to...
Movie Review posted on 5th December 2013
Oldboy
Moviegoers who know nothing about the iconic 2003 Korean thriller will perhaps enjoy this half-hearted remake. It lacks the subtlety and irony of Park Chan-wook's deranged masterpiece, but Spike Lee brings a certain technical sleekness...
Movie Review posted on 5th December 2013
Kill Your Darlings
Even though it's slightly too mannered, this true drama takes a clever approach to the beat poets long before they were famous. It's also packed with shocking twists and unnerving details that help us get...
Movie Review posted on 5th December 2013
Frozen
Disney learns a lesson from Pixar's Brave, giving these orphaned princesses some feisty purpose that doesn't depend on a man. Everything else about this movie is fairly formulaic, including the requisite goofy sidekick character. But...
Movie Review posted on 5th December 2013
Free Birds
An energetic sense of the absurd helps make this animated romp entertaining, even though the script is almost painfully stupid. But the pace is so brisk, and the stream of deranged jokes so continual, that...
Movie Review posted on 29th November 2013
A Week In Movies: More High-Profile Releases, Trailers For Muscle-Man Movies, And A New Life Of Jesus
In the wake of last week's Catching Fire fever, new releases this week are a little more low key. Thanksgiving audiences in America will be choosing between Disney's acclaimed new animated film Frozen and Spike...
News posted in Movies / TV / Theatre on 29th November 2013
Saving Mr. Banks
This true story only barely avoids becoming sloppily sentimental, thanks to a solid cast and a final act that generates honest emotion. Awash with the Disney spirit, the film breaks free of the marketing machine...
Movie Review posted on 28th November 2013
![Young & Beautiful [Jeune & Jolie]](https://www.contactmusic.com/images/reviews2/jeuneetjolie-fr.jpg "Young & Beautiful [Jeune & Jolie]")
Young & Beautiful [Jeune & Jolie]
French filmmaker Francois Ozon continues to explore transgressive aspects of sexuality (see In the House) with this deliberately controversial drama about a teen prostitute. But since he refuses to indulge in the usual cliches, we...
Movie Review posted on 28th November 2013
Carrie
A more feminine slant elevates this remake to something interesting, even if the film is overwrought and essentially unnecessary. Director Peirce calls this a new adaptation of the Stephen King novel rather than a remake...
Movie Review posted on 28th November 2013
Leviathan
More an experimental art installation than a documentary, this film is mesmerising visually but so abstract that we often aren't sure what we're looking at. And the filmmakers give us very little information, never telling...
Movie Review posted on 28th November 2013
Day of the Flowers
Despite a very wobbly screenplay, this film's decent cast and gorgeous setting make it worth a look. It may be a somewhat awkward mix of comical slapstick, political ideas and darker drama, but the characters...
Movie Review posted on 28th November 2013
A Week In Movies: Catching Fire lands in cinemas, Black Nativity premieres, a first peek into Noah's ark
This week is pretty much all about The Hunger Games as Catching Fire arrives in cinemas around the world. After last week's world premiere in London, the cast headed back to America for back-to-back premieres...
News posted in Movies / TV / Theatre on 22nd November 2013
Breakfast With Jonny Wilkinson
Warm and likeable but rather thin, this gentle British comedy spins a tangled farce around the 2003 Rugby World Cup. With its limited setting and small cast, it feels like the filmed version of the...
Movie Review posted on 21st November 2013
Vendetta
Packed with cliches, there's nothing remotely original about this East London crime thriller, which seems to be based on other similar movies rather than an original story or characters. It's also not particularly well-made, stretching...
Movie Review posted on 21st November 2013
Blue Is the Warmest Colour
The surprise winner of the top prize at Cannes, this three-hour French drama is unlike any movie we've ever seen, getting so deeply under the skin of its central character that we find universal truths...
Movie Review posted on 21st November 2013
Parkland
This starry drama has documentary realism going for it, although without a single well-developed character it never finds any resonance. By recounting JFK's assassination from a variety of previously unseen angles, we learn some new...
Movie Review posted on 21st November 2013
The Family
Despite a promising trailer and a great cast, this French-American comedy-thriller is a complete misfire because Luc Besson seems unclear about how to create a black comedy. He merely mixes silliness and violence, but the...
Movie Review posted on 21st November 2013
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
After 2012's The Hunger Games caught us off-guard with its subtle themes, this sequel more than lives up to the hype, dramatically expanding the scale of the action while letting the actors deepen their characters....
Movie Review posted on 21st November 2013
A Week In Movies: Catching Fire premieres, Portman dodges the paps, Jolie is Maleficent, Farrell travels in time and Wahlberg is buzzing
The big event this week was the world premiere on Monday night of the new Hunger Games movie Catching Fire, with the entire cast on the red carpet in Leicester Square. Early word on the...
News posted in Movies / TV / Theatre on 15th November 2013
Pandora's Promise
It's a shame so few people see documentaries, and that so few politicians pay them any attention, because this film has the power to change the way we think about nuclear energy. It's an issue...
Movie Review posted on 14th November 2013
In Fear
Claustrophobic and creepy, this experiment in contained horror has its moments as just three characters circle around each other. But the approach is almost infuriatingly vague, which eliminates any real suspense. Still, it's sharply well...
Movie Review posted on 14th November 2013
Don Jon
With this writing-directing debut, Joseph Gordon-Levitt delivers a remarkably assured comedy-drama while also giving himself a role that's far against his usual type. It's raucously hilarious but also surprisingly involving as it reveals the vulnerabilities...
Movie Review posted on 14th November 2013
Dom Hemingway
Definitely a film of two halves, this crime comedy kicks off with a spark of witty energy as the title character blusters his way through a series of events with hilariously profane rants. Then the...
Movie Review posted on 14th November 2013
The Butler
This is an strangely slushy movie from Lee Daniels, whose last two films (Precious and The Paperboy) bristled with unexpected life. By contrast, this star-packed drama uses a true story to trace the Civil Rights...
Movie Review posted on 14th November 2013
The Counselor
This film proves that all the right ingredients don't necessarily make a movie work. Even with top-drawer filmmakers and actors, this dramatic thriller simply never grabs our interest. It looks great, and everyone is giving...
Movie Review posted on 14th November 2013
A Week In Movies: Who will play Wonder Woman? Last Vegas premieres in New York. New trailers for Bale, LaBeouf and Vaughn
The big rumour this week is that Wonder Woman will be featured in the upcoming Batman vs Superman film, starring Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill, and then will have her own movie afterwards. The two...
News posted in Movies / TV / Theatre on 8th November 2013
Seduced and Abandoned
Anyone interested in how movies get made will love this feisty behind-the-scenes documentary, which uses sharp comedy to explore the messy business side of cinema. Both smart and very funny, it may not tell us...
Movie Review posted on 8th November 2013
Escape From Tomorrow
Cleverly shot guerrilla-style in Disney's Florida and California theme parks, this offbeat thriller is an exercise in relentlessly inventive filmmaking, vividly proving that pure imagination can overcome a micro-budget. Writer-director Moore propels us into a...
Movie Review posted on 8th November 2013
Suggested
Leisure Festival - Dreamland in Margate
On the same day that Glastonbury welcomed back Margate's adopted sons, The Libertines, Margate itself put on it's very own Leisure Festival as it...
Pretty Fierce talk to us about collaborating with Doja Cat, emetophobia, arena tours and staying "true to yourself" [EXCLUSIVE]
Sheffield's very own all girl group Pretty Fierce are still on a high after the recent release of their debut single - 'Ready For Me'.
Will Varley & Jack Valero - The Astor Theatre Deal Live Review
Three nights before the end of his current tour Will Varley returned to his home town of Deal to delight a sold out crowd in The Astor Theatre.
WYSE talks to us about her "form of synaesthesia", collaborating with Radiohead's Thom York and the prospect of touring with a band [EXCLUSIVE]
With only a few days to go before Portsmouth based songstress and producer WYSE releases her new single, 'Belladonna', we caught up with her to find...
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Bay Bryan talks to us about being a "wee queer ginger", singing with Laura Marling and being inspired by Matilda [EXCLUSIVE]
Colorado raised, Glasgow educated and Manchester based Bay Bryan is nothing if not a multi-talented, multi-faceted artist performing as both...
Keelan X talks to us about staying true to "your creative vision", collaborating with Giorgio Moroder and being "a yoga nut" [EXCLUSIVE]
Former Marigolds band member Keelan Cunningham has rediscovered his love of music with his new solo project Keelan X.
![Luke De-Sciscio talks to us about having the courage to be yourself, forgiving that which is outside of one's control and following whims [EXCLUSIVE]](https://images.contactmusic.com/images/home/homepage/luke-de-sciscio-abof-a.jpg "Luke De-Sciscio talks to us about having the courage to be yourself, forgiving that which is outside of one's control and following whims [EXCLUSIVE]")
Luke De-Sciscio talks to us about having the courage to be yourself, forgiving that which is outside of one's control and following whims [EXCLUSIVE]
Wiltshire singer-songwriter Luke De Sciscio, formally known as Folk Boy, is set to release is latest album - 'The Banquet' via AntiFragile Music on...
Annie Elise talks to us about the challenges a female producer has to face and "going through a year of grief and sickness" [EXCLUSIVE]
Electronic music pioneer and producer Annie Elise says that the release of her first EP - 'Breathe In, Breathe Out' feels "both vulnerable and...
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