Rock bottom. Chances are you’ve heard that phrase a time or two in your life. I hope you’ve never been there or experienced anything like the struggles of punk rocker and writer, Jim Carroll. A talented but misguided individual he was, The Basketball Diaries chronicles his teenage years when he went from basketball star to […]
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Short Term 12 is so authentic, life-affirming, and grounded in reality that it genuinely makes you feel the power of its message. Rarely can a film be a truthful understatement, tell a profound story, devastate you and lift your spirits all at the same time. For me, the film is a stroke of genius, a […]
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How do you make an on-screen romance between a man and a blow-up doll interesting? You do it with openness, faith, a touch of comedy and with Ryan Gosling playing the lead. There’s no easy way to explain the plot of Lars and the Real Girl, without sounding like a rambling idiot. I can’t imagine what […]
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As much as I enjoy a good action flick with a badass hero, the films that have the most effect on me are the ones about ordinary people. Let’s face it, regular folk who must rise to the occasion allows for way more food for thought. I have lost count of the number of indie […]
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In Imperial Dreams, John Boyega isn’t a stormtrooper batting heads with Kylo Ren. Instead, the pre-Star Wars Boyega plays an ex-con named Bambi, on route to redemption. Sharing the same name as a certain Disney character, you’d think he wouldn’t stand a chance in the world of crime. But he’s been to prison and back. […]
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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that Robin Williams is a legend, having left behind a lasting impact. He could do anything, given the right material and platform. I always enjoyed watching his comedies as a kid and his life-affirming dramas as I grew older. While Williams has starred in many beloved […]
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Let me start by saying this: for a Miami-set film which features drug dealers and rough neighbourhoods, Moonlight isn’t concerned about gang culture and the crime associated with it. Instead, the film is completely committed to showing the troubled life of Chiron, played by three different actors in three chapters, with each part detailing his experiences […]
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Pitch-black comedy To my mind, comedy is the toughest genre to make work, especially when dealing with the darker side of the genre. Humour comes in various flavours, any of which may appeal to one person but not to another. I’m the type of person that enjoys black comedies, like Bernie. Richard Linklater’s film is based […]
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True classics never get old! It was the turn of the millennia when Richard Kelly created sci-fi drama Donnie Darko, which boasts one of the most complex and compelling stories of this century. It was also the moment cinema discovered Jake Gyllenhaal, who portrays Donnie, a schizophrenic high school kid. And his problems begin when a mysterious […]
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One of the many things I have great respect for is people who tell it like it is. This is precisely what Ken Loach does with I, Daniel Blake. It’s a film that left me with a knot in my stomach, as it dawned on me that Loach’s portrayal of a poverty-stricken Britain couldn’t be closer […]
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The premise of It Follows sounds like the worst film ever when said out loud. But sometimes the best ideas are the unusual ones. This thrilling horror focuses on teenager Jay (Monroe), who after sleeping with her new boyfriend, becomes the target of a supernatural entity – a curse passed on through sex. There are clear […]
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There’s little more that can be done with the ‘let’s make a band’ formula, but John Carney manages to create something really special with Sing Street. It’s a funny, lively, utterly brilliant coming-of-age story set in 1985 Dublin. It focuses on young Conor “Cosmo” Lawlor, who starts a rock band to impress a girl. This is a […]
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Motion Picture Blog 