David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises takes on the Russian mafia in a rainy, murky London. We go along with Russian mobsters, Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) and Krill (Vincent Cassel), and the good-natured nurse Anna (Naomi Watts) within the brutal criminal underworld. What makes this film cut above your average crime story is how the lives of a gangster family […]
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Katherine Bigalow’s latest is Detroit – a madly unnerving film, which takes place during the American race riots in the summer of 1967. Police brutality, looting and civil unrest are presented in the most shocking way possible, and there’s nothing distancing about it. In the heat of the riots, a group of cops raid a low-rent motel […]
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Pure black comedy mixed with crime, murder and mayhem: welcome to Fargo. This film is another winner by the Coen Brothers, two directors that I love. Masters of offbeat, low-key cinema, they always know how to reinvent the wheel. Set in 80s Minnesota, Fargo starts off by telling the audience that what you’re about to see is based […]
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Scarface. One of my favourite gangster movies. Next year sees the release of the reboot, but today I’m talking about the ’80s version by Brian De Palma. Not for a second does this film let you pause to take a breather. That’s one of the main reasons why it’s so good. Many critics said the […]
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There’s not too many private eye, detective movies coming out these days, so London-set thriller, City of Tiny Lights, is a cool prospect. What caught my eye and made me give this a go, is the fact that the main character is played by a British Pakistani. I thought this was a nice, fresh change that […]
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Gone Baby Gone – a tale of mystery and child abductions, with Casey Affleck playing the lead. I have wanted to see this film for a long while and I’m happy to say it didn’t disappoint. It’s one those films that make you consider a moral dilemma (what would have I done?). Any movie that does […]
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Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling) makes bank robbery look like a walk in the park in The Place Beyond The Pines. Motorcycle stuntman by trade, violent criminal by nature, Gosling’s Luke is a classic anti-hero: you root for him, but you know you shouldn’t. This tattooed, chain-smoking biker discovers he’s the father of two-year-old Jason, son of […]
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Among the many classics of the ’90s and the various gangster films we all know and love, A Bronx Tale stands out for its powerful and thought-provoking story. It just happens to be one of the best gangster films I’ve seen. It’s a simple film, but that’s the beauty of it. Set in the 1960s, Robert DiNero […]
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No Country for Old Men starts out at like a modern-day western, then it begins to look like a cape thriller, before turning into a full-blown bloodbath… which involves a psychopathic killer with a really bad haircut. I expected this film to be a majestic, artsy piece of cinema and while it certainly was that, the […]
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Sicario is the kind of the film that you just don’t want to end. The story, characters and immersive gun-fights had me hooked, and I would honestly pay dividends for an extended cut. Sicario is a brilliant thriller, which takes the viewer on an intense journey through Mexico, where we are aligned with FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily […]
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If you think back to your childhood, there was probably a time where you found something in the woods that you thought was really cool, like an unusual object, or an old swing rope across a river. But in Watt’s film, rebellious boys Travis (Freedosn-Jackson) and Harrison (Wellford) find a cop car. Better yet, the […]
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Everything about Drive is just cool. It’s the film that introduced me to Ryan Gosling and I’ve been a fan ever since. He portrays ‘Driver’, a Hollywood stuntman by day, but a ruthless getaway driver by night. When he steps in to protect next-door neighbour Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son, from the gangsters that her husband […]
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