Done In, 2014 - ★★★

Probably much better if you can't see how it's going to end.

November 09, 2014 at 12:00PM

He Took His Skin Off for Me, 2014 - ★★★

Nicely made but couldn't get past why he couldn't just put on some clothes.

November 09, 2014 at 11:58AM

Mr. Dentonn, 2014 - ★★★

It may be cliched but it's really well made and has a satisfying ending that raises the overall experience beyond the obvious.

November 09, 2014 at 11:56AM

Wind, 2013 - ★★★★½

My favourite short film in the Silver Méliès Fantastic Short Film Competition at #LIFF28

November 09, 2014 at 11:52AM

When Animals Dream, 2014 - ★★★½

I thought this stylishly played up to the tropes of the genre but I know others thought it was cliched. The only disappointing part was the unnecessarily horror styled dreams when the rest of the film felt realistic.

November 09, 2014 at 11:50AM

Jour de Fête, 1949 - ★★★★

A complete delight from start to finish, frequently laugh out loud funny and utterly charming.

November 09, 2014 at 11:42AM

A Night at the Cinema in 1914, 2014 - ★★★★

Two things struck me whilst being whisked back to 1914. Firstly how 100 years doesn't feel that long ago and yet how radically different everything is. When we can get just about anything in our hands instantly I wonder how future generations will know what best represents us and I have a horrible feeling that we're not really reflecting out society very well with the majority of content we produce.

The second point was much less depressing and that was how much the modern audience enjoyed the short films, tonight I heard some of the biggest laughs I've heard in the cinema for a long time. The simplicity of some of the films, especially Pimple, was so inspirational compared to overblown efforts we see today.

I had to leave early, during The Perils of Pauline, so I didn't see the whole thing.

November 08, 2014 at 12:32AM

Brasil Bam Bam Bam: The Story of Sonzeira - ★★★½

It's always a pleasure to watch passionate people talk about the subject they love and everybody featured in this film is bursting with passion.

Q&A with Director Charlie Inman

November 06, 2014 at 10:43PM

Björk: Biophilia Live, 2014 - ★★★★

A rare occasion when the concert film may be better than being there in person. With the audience surrounding a stage full of a choir and musicians, Bjork would frequently disappear from view of the audience but this isn't an issue on film. More significantly the screen visuals are wonderfully mixed with the live footage creating many magical moments such as the time Bjork appears to be singing to a 5ft jelly fish (probably not a jelly fish).

I've been fairly indifferent to Bjork's music in the past but in this concert it just kept getting better. By the end it was becoming difficult to resist joining in with the on screen applause, something I wish the LIFF had joined in with.

November 06, 2014 at 10:38PM

The Taking - ★★★

A scuzzy low budget film that often feels amateurish but the passion of the filmmakers always fights through to make it an enjoyable experience.

November 06, 2014 at 12:01AM

Testament of Youth, 2015 - ★★½

An inoffensive opening to #LIFF28 was pretty much what I expecting from the only uninspiring trailer on the festival launch night. There's not much here that we haven't seen done before. Every major plot point is so heavily sign posted that there are no surprises. A few of the smaller roles are rather enjoyable, especially Joanna Scanlan chaperoning a date.

Towards the end things start to get interesting but by then it's too late and there's not enough to make the film anything other than ordinary.

November 05, 2014 at 11:29PM

Nightcrawler, 2014 - ★★★½

Some great scenes, a fantastic central performance and some wonderful dialogue are all let down by mediocre direction. With a more experienced director this could have been brilliant, instead all of the setup comes across as cliched, which is a real shame.

Along with Under The Skin it's one of the creepiest non-horror horror films but also deliciously dark, gripping and entertaining.

November 04, 2014 at 11:50PM

Ida, 2013 - ★★★½

Concisely put together without wasting a moment, the second part of the film really comes together in a quietly spectacular way.

November 04, 2014 at 11:33PM

Suspiria, 1977 - ★★★★

With live performance by Claudio Simonetti’s GOBLIN

Live music always adds something to the atmosphere but this is the first time I think the music has improved the film. Goblin playing their own music live and loudly over the film gave the already powerful film an intensity that just wasn't there when the recorded soundtrack crashed into the film.

November 02, 2014 at 11:51PM

Speed Racer, 2008 - ★★

When I finally saw Speed Racer (has it really taken 6 years to get a TV screening?) I hoped I'd be one of the (few) people who really liked it; I wasn't. It was just noise to me, wonderfully looking noise and infinitely more stylish than most modern blockbusters. Appropriately enough it felt like a saturday morning cartoon but that also meant I felt no connection to the story or characters.

November 02, 2014 at 11:44PM

The Howling, 1981 - ★★★

After watching An American Werewolf In London the night before this was quite disappointing. AAWIL has stood the test of time but The Howling feels dated and immature and feels like the type of first film you'd see today from students. It is still fun to watch and has many great moments an attention to detail.

November 02, 2014 at 11:38PM

Re-Animator, 1985 - ★★★

Camp B-movie horror that's a lot of gruesome fun.

November 02, 2014 at 11:34PM

Inferno, 1980 - ★★★½

Bloody good fun and much easier to watch at Halloween after I struggled to stay awake when it was on TV last Christmas.

November 02, 2014 at 11:31PM

The Eagle Has Landed, 1976 - ★★★

An enjoyable film but not really that special but it's easy to see how it could become a Bank Holiday favourite.

November 02, 2014 at 11:26PM

Tabu, 2012 - ★★★

The first part of the film is frequently beautiful and the second half feels fresh and inventive but I failed to be emotionally engaged with the story in any meaningful way.

November 02, 2014 at 11:21PM

The Divide, 2011 - ★

A horror film but only in the sense that everything is so repulsive. Central to the problem is that everything escalates too far and too quickly and feels completely implausible. The rest of the film consists of unlikeable characters doing repugnant things to each other and really has no redeeming qualities.

I was originally meant to see this at Leeds Film Festival a few years ago but there was a problem and the film couldn't be shown (never have I been so retroactively pleased for something). Instead they showed Gens earlier film Frontier(s) which was also full of horrible things happening to people but that film worked because it followed a more obvious path of "normal" people discovering "freaks". There is no logic to anything that happens in The Divide and it's just an unpleasant experience in all the wrong ways.

November 02, 2014 at 11:11PM

The Orphanage, 2007 - ★★★★½

Not only one of the best modern horror films but one of the best films of the new millenium. The Orphanage has pretty much everything: it's a ghost story in a haunted house with shocks and scares but most significantly at it's centre is a real heartfelt sadness and a human tale grounded in real emotion.

November 02, 2014 at 10:57PM

An American Werewolf in London, 1981 - ★★★★

I'm no expert but this may be the best werewolf film. The physical effects for the transformation are still amazing 30 years later and puts modern CGI to shame.

November 02, 2014 at 10:45PM

The Lost Boys, 1987 - ★★★½

A checklist of how films were made in the 80s but without ever feeling cliched and always entertaining.

November 02, 2014 at 10:38PM

Drive, 2011 - ★★★

Radio 1 Rescore

I've been meaning to rewatch Drive for quite some time. On my first viewing I wasn't as impressed as everybody else but it was a film that stuck with me and I thought I should like more. Part of the reason I couldn't shake the film was the soundtrack, which I subsequently bought and adds an extra dimension to supermarket shopping (or anything else).

This version was rescored by Zane Lowe and featured music from The 1975, Bastille, CHVRCHES, Foals and many others. The reaction on Twitter was odd, the majority of people seemed to hate it (why mess with perfection?) but there was always someone praising the new music. Many noted that even if they didn't like the new score the experiment was interesting to show how music can change the film. My problem was that I didn't think the music did change the film. Apart from the lift scene (Laura Mvula?) I thought all the choices worked well and were never a distraction. The original score had an eighties feel whereas this felt modern. Although I've listened to the original soundtrack many times I don't know how it fits to the film and it was those who were more familiar that noticed the difference. So I'm left thinking that it's the original soundtrack that is great and not the film which still failed to overly impress (although I still do feel like I should like it more).

It's also the first time I can remember choosing to watch a film as it was broadcast on TV and that's something.

November 01, 2014 at 11:14AM