The Witch, 2015 - ★½

Hailed as the scariest film of the year presumably by people who have never seen a film. Dull, tedious and let down by anachronistic performance and difficult to follow dialogue (taken from real life written journals doesn't mean it was supposed to be spoken out loud as a conversation). The only hope was that it would be building to that scary finale; if it had done then it would still feel like it wasn't worth the journey. The fact that it fails to deliver anything remotely close to scary just makes it a waste of time.

Perhaps a problem with the hype and how the film was marketed rather than the film itself.

November 07, 2015 at 10:13PM

Therapy for a Vampire, 2015 - ★★★

A whole lot of fun but not enough to make it a classic.

November 07, 2015 at 10:01PM

Shrew's Nest, 2014 - ★★★★

*Poster Spoiler*
It's nearly always obvious what's going to happen but it unravels with such wonderful style.

November 07, 2015 at 09:41PM

The Hallow, 2015 - ★★½

Competently made horror but too cliched at times and ends up being wholly unremarkable. There are too many jump scares that are neither surprising nor scary and for a jumpy horror film that's really a problem

November 07, 2015 at 03:02PM

The Thing, 1982 - ★★★★

It's always a relief to revisit a film and find that it hasn't aged at all. Although definitely of its time, it's all the better for it and manages to get everything right where so many modern horrors fail.

This screening at #LIFF29 was preceded by a specially filmed interview with John Carpenter and that was a whole other wonderfully weird experience.

November 06, 2015 at 10:43PM

Sanjay's Super Team, 2015 - ★★★★

Watched on Thursday November 5, 2015.

November 05, 2015 at 11:36PM

Brooklyn, 2015 - ★★★★

A great start to #LIFF29 and much better than I was expecting. For a lot of the running time it feels like everything you'd expect from an award baiting BBC film. But there are also many unexpected laugh out loud moments (mainly from Julie Walters) and something much deeper running throughout the whole film. By the final third I was hooked enough to be swept away by the ending which so easily could've gone in another direction.

November 05, 2015 at 11:33PM

My #LIFF29 Ranked

Films ranked as I see them at the 29th Leeds International Film Festival.

1. Sanjay's Super Team
2. Brooklyn

November 05, 2015 at 11:36PM

Spectre, 2015 - ★★★½

I've never really been a fan of Bond; Casino Royale grabbed my interest before Quantum of Solace threw it away. I enjoyed Skyfall a lot and that was the main reason for wanting to see Spectre. I don't think Spectre is ever as satisfying as Skyfall but it is a film well made by a group of people who obviously know what they are doing.

There are a few problems though, for starters the film is far too long. Each set piece goes on a little longer than it should, it's unfair to call them boring because they don't lack excitement but they do feel like they drag on.

Then there's the women. Much was made of Monica Bellucci's casting but it's little more than a cameo and her scenes revert back to sleazy Bond of old. Lea Seydoux's character is much more interesting or at least she's initially set up that way and then wasted by reverting to a damsel in distress. I thought Bond (character and franchise) had matured and this seemed like a great opportunity to have a different type of relationship (although in real life Craig is younger than I thought at 47 and Seydoux is older at 30)

But is that what a Bond film is supposed to be? Apparently there are several nods to the rest of the Bond 'universe' (whatever that is - something else that never made any sense to me) so it's likely to appeal to fans more than it did to me. When trying to sum up how I felt about it all I was left thinking is it's good but is it as good as Kingsmen or Rogue Nation? And for me that answer is probably no.

November 03, 2015 at 11:52PM

Hotel Transylvania, 2012 - ★★★

I was expecting a low quality animation but found a lot to enjoy and appreciate in Hotel Transylvania.

November 01, 2015 at 03:03PM

Horns, 2013 - ★★★½

Horns is a mess which is a real shame because there's a really good film trying to get out. There's a childhood flashback early on which drags on far too long and serves little purpose. Then more and more recent flashbacks occur and you have to wonder why. The strength of the film lies in the confessional performances and cutting away to tell things in a conventional flashback is just a waste. Fortunately every time the film starts to sag another great, often laugh out loud funny, moment comes along. When things start getting weird they may not make much sense but I found myself just going along with them in all the glorious madness.

November 01, 2015 at 02:58PM

Fear Itself, 2015 - ★★★

A solid compilation of fear in film but it it needed to be tied together with a stronger narrative.

November 01, 2015 at 02:52PM

Maniac, 2012 - ★★½

A first person slasher that occasional forgets its central conceit and shoots from another perspective for no reason. It starts off well but quickly becomes repetitive which makes you wish it had only been a short film. Great soundtrack though.

November 01, 2015 at 02:47PM

Mama, 2013 - ★★★½

I enjoyed this Del Toro production a lot more than Crimson Peak which I saw earlier in the week. Mama throws everything in the horror bucket at the screen and a lot of it sticks and works quite well. Unfortunately there's a lot that doesn't work. The visual effects aren't up to scratch especially for the non supernatural elements such as the rain and car accident near the start of the film. Throughout the film far too much is revealed that would be better left hidden which seems to be a huge problem with so many films. The ending is a mess which doesn't really make much sense but it's nice that it is slightly unconventional when it easily could have been.

November 01, 2015 at 02:40PM

Crimson Peak, 2015 - ★★½

A disappointing attempt at a grown up English language film from Del Toro. A dull opening in New York drags on for far too long with little purpose. Things improve once everything moves to Crimson Peak but the only suspense is wondering if some kind of twist will take the story off the obvious path. It feels like a bad video game as the protagonists explores the mysterious house discovering the plot via discarded audio logs (why and how do these exist?) and even the climax feels like a badly executed boss fight.

I feel like I'm being too harsh because it isn't exactly a bad film and often looks great. But it's doesn't come close to Del Toro's earlier work nor to many of the spanish language films he's produced which is why it's a big disappointment.

October 25, 2015 at 10:59PM

John Wick, 2014 - ★★★

Difficult to see why this is getting so much praise. It's very ordinary and almost completely without any purpose. It's pretty much just 90 minutes of Keanu Reeves mindlessly killing people, sometimes stylishly but often just matter of factly. There was one moment when two kills seem to be in time to the music in the club which could've made a great sequence but as it doesn't follow through I can only assume this was an accident. It is sort of fun but also hard to get over the pointless killing throughout.

October 25, 2015 at 10:36PM

AAAAAAAAH!, 2015 - ★★★½

Unlike anything else and frequently very funny. It's great to see something this unusual making it to the cinema screens and just about getting away with it. But at just 80 minutes it felt too long although that could've have just been the my tiredness at the late night screening.

Steve Oram introduced the film and did a Q&A after the film.

October 25, 2015 at 10:26PM

Tom at the Farm, 2013 - ★★★½

It's still remarkable how accomplished a film maker Dolan already is so early in his career/life. There are many moments in Tom At The Farm when it appears obvious what direction the story is going to take but then the film never does. Instead we're left with a series of vignettes which often leave you wanting more but also cover a lot of ground.

October 25, 2015 at 10:21PM

Lovelace, 2013 - ★★½

A film of two halves, neither of which really work. The first 'happy' part is formulaic biopic stuff. The second half is more interesting but never really delivers on the potential of offering up a different perspective.

October 25, 2015 at 10:10PM

Back to the Future Part III, 1990 - ★★★★

Part III succeeds with all the self referential stuff that fell a little flat in Part II. On top of that it also manages to have a great standalone story making it the second best in the trilogy.

October 25, 2015 at 04:51PM

Back to the Future, 1985 - ★★★★★

I forgot to write a review when I watched this last week to prepare for Part II's cinema trip. Fortunately my tweet at the time perfectly sums it up:

My God, Back To The Future is so well written.

October 25, 2015 at 04:48PM

A collection of #LIFF29 Recommendations

These are not my own recommendations but a collection of the films I've seen other people recommend at the 29th Leeds International Film Festival.

• Tangerine

  Jake@FOHPPH - http://ift.tt/1LrjDbG
  Neon Reels - http://ift.tt/203jd2V

• Lucifer

  Jake@FOHPPH - http://ift.tt/1LrjDbG

• Taxi

  Jake@FOHPPH - http://ift.tt/1LrjDbG

• Couple in a Hole

  Jake@FOHPPH - http://ift.tt/1LrjDbG

• Happy Hour

  Jake@FOHPPH - http://ift.tt/1LrjDbG

• In the Crosswind

  Jake@FOHPPH - http://ift.tt/1LrjDbG

• Heart of a Dog

  Jake@FOHPPH - http://ift.tt/1LrjDbG

• The House with Laughing Windows

  Jake@FOHPPH - http://ift.tt/1LrjDbG

• Zeder

  Jake@FOHPPH - http://ift.tt/1LrjDbG

• Brooklyn

  Neon Reels - http://ift.tt/203jd2V

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

October 23, 2015 at 01:27PM

Back to the Future Part II, 1989 - ★★★★ (contains spoilers)

This review reportedly contains spoilers.

When I found out my local cinema was showing BTTF2 I just welcomed the opportunity to see the film on the big screen. I didn't realise that Back To The Future Day was going to be such a big deal. It was a full house at the cinema which I wasn't really expecting. Nor was I expecting the moment they arrived on 21st October 2015 to be such a special and unique moment, eliciting cheers and whoops from the audience. A round of applause at the end felt like the right thing , broken up with more laughter for the concluding in 1990 caption.

As for the film, it may be the weakest in the trilogy (I now need to find time to watch Part III) but it's also the one with all the timey-wimey stuff that is such a fundamental part of the series. The problem with going to the future (technically now our past) is that it starts to date the The first film felt effortlessly smart, Part II always feels like it's trying to hard to hit the same beats but never quite succeeds. Once the action returns to 1955 things pick up a lot and it feels back on par with the first film. The way the final part is introduced is so well structured throughout the entire film but really comes together in the final moments. It's not surprising that I can still remember the moment when I initially saw the cliffhanger in the cinema and couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next.

October 21, 2015 at 11:17PM

Sicario, 2015 - ★★★½

Sicario is a good film, maybe even a very good film but I'm not sure if it's a great film. My problem is that this is just what I expect a thriller to be and so it doesn't seem special until you compare it to the majority of underwritten dross that is unnecessarily released.

There's a plot hump (which is what I've decided to call this kind of thing) I couldn't overcome whereby I didn't understand why Kate was selected in the first place, surely there was a less idealised FBI agent available? I also agree with Filmspotting's Adam Kempenaar that the Mexican cop scenes are far too obviously manipulative but having said that are they required to make the final scene work.

I'm in little doubt that this is one of the best looking films of the year. Everybody is talking about the tunnel sequence but it was the silhouetted scene before they enter which really stood out to me. It's also one of most tense films with each of the big set pieces working really effectively. The final scenes between Kate and Alejandro would have also been great if some fools hadn't announced details of a potential sequel and removed most of the tension.

There were many moments when I thought this was going to be another soundtrack for my collection but after the initial hooks the music didn't seem to go anywhere as interesting as I had hoped and that's ultimately how I ended up feeling about the film overall.

October 21, 2015 at 10:56PM

The Lobster, 2015 - ★★★½

I'm still trying to think what to say about The Lobster. My first feeling was the slightly worrying thought that it didn't actually seem that strange. It definitely isn't conventional but it did have a more mainstream appeal that I wasn't expecting. When it did have more extreme moments they felt out of place and it was perhaps a problem throughout the entire film that the tone did change so much. The first half is stronger than the second although the similarities between the two groups also provide a lot of the interesting issues in the film.

October 18, 2015 at 11:38PM