USA

Kiss Of The Damned

The feature debut from writer-director Xan Cassavetes too often lets its unnecessary Euro kitsch aspirations handicap an otherwise respectable modern day vampire romance. Read More
Curse of Chucky

Despite a decent turn from Fiona Dourif (daughter of Chucky’s voice actor Brad), Curse of Chucky is pretty lame. Lacks scares, laughs & efforts to link back to original fall… Read More
Coherence

Reminiscent of the comedy It’s A Disaster, as reimagined by Shane Carruth. A dinner party disintegrates into mind bending science-fiction, from their may be no escape. Utterly gripping stuff. Read More
To Be Or Not To Be

A troupe of sub-par stage performers square off against the Nazis in occupied Poland circa 1942. By applying their skills of performance, disguise and suspension of disbelief they attempt to… Read More
Rush

Thrilling chapter in F1’s chequered history with dull business & techspeak stripped away to give the crowdpleasing human drama a clear run. Hemsworth is suitably charismatic as playboy James Hunt,… Read More
Blue Jasmine

Woody Allen is on top form here & Cate Blanchett is at the height of her powers. An utterly believable, sympathetic, loathsome performance. A clear awards favourite. Read More
A Band Called Death

This music documenatary about an obscure black punk band from the 70s, is less about punk rock and more about wrestling with how best to honour the wishes of the… Read More
Gravity

Pure cinema. Fantastically staged, inventively shot and robustly performed. Epic, intimate, claustrophobic & thrilling. See it BIG. Read my full review here. Read More
The Kings of Summer

The spirit of Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me lives on in Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ coming-of-age drama, in which two best friends abandon civilisation and opt to spend the summer living on… Read More
Beautiful Creatures

I had no interest in watching what appeared to be yet another post-Twilight supernatural romance actually turned out ot be one of the best examples of the genre. Aidan Ehrenreich… Read More
Can’t Hardly Wait

After being introduced to Ethan Embry by his Cheap Thrills director Evan Katz, I made a mental note to myself to watch his breakthrough role in 90s teen comedy Can’t… Read More
Blue Ruin

An excellent tale of family feuds and bloody revenge. Great direction and a knockout performance from Macon Blair. Read More
We Are What We Are

I loved Jim Mickle’s remake of Jorge Michel Grau’s equally impressive Mexican cannibal drama. Script changes all justifed & well handled, performances strong & Catskills setting beautifully eerie. Read More
The Green Inferno

This throwback cannibal flick is the natural summation of all Eli Roth’s travelogue horrors. As gruesome & darkly comic as we could hope for. Read More
Grand Piano

Recent years have seen Elijah Wood take on some genuinely daring projects that have helped set him apart from many American actors of his generation. Grand Piano marks the English-language… Read More
Escape From Tomorrow

THe story behind Randy Moore’s Escape From Tomorrow proves infinitely more interesting that what ends up on screen. Shot guerrilla-style without permission in Disneyland and Disneyworld, it is a nightmarish… Read More
Lee Daniels’ The Butler

Lee Daniels returns to the socially conscious world of awards darling, Precious, for a politically charged odyssey through 50 years of American history. Seen through the eyes of Cecil Gaines,… Read More
Magic Magic

Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown have been a cinematic mainstay since the birth of the medium, fuelled by everything from jealousy and claustrophobia to demonic possession and… Read More