Writers

In Review: Outside Bet

by Janet Awe 8 May 2012

Based in South-East London, in the 1980s, Outside Bet is a heartwarming comedy about a close-knit group of working class friends whose local pub is their home-from-home. A mixture of generations, all working at the local printing firm, their story is set against the backdrop of the Wapping newspaper dispute; a time of bitter strikes, [...]

Read the full article →

London Archive Film Festival: Senna Q & A

by Ben Sheppard 8 May 2012

The inaugural London Archive Film Festival kicked off last Thursday with a screening of the extraordinary documentary Senna, attended by both the director and the archive producer, Asif Kapadia and Paul Bell. Now, hopefully, I don’t need to tell you how astounding this film is, because you should have already seen it.

Read the full article →

In Review: Jeff, Who Lives at Home

by Danielle Richardson 8 May 2012

This is a film about a 30-year-old man, played by Jason Segel, who still lives at home in his parents’ basement, habitually smoking weed. It sounds like a set-up for the kind of easy-watching, LOL-filled deal Jason Segel has become synonymous with, after his turns in Knocked Up (2007), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) and I [...]

Read the full article →

In Review: All in Good Time

by Mairéad Roche 4 May 2012

Based on Ayub Khan-Din’s play Rafta, All in Good Time marks the return of the East is East author to the familiar ground of a British Asian family experiencing the clash between first and second generation cultural values.

Read the full article →

In Review: Beauty and the Beast (3D)

by Maryann O'Connor 3 May 2012

It’s been two decades since we first met Disney’s Belle and the Beast aka an alternative Prince Charming. Disney were just entering another period of high productivity, kickstarted two years earlier by the success of The Little Mermaid, but were still ages away from their rejuvenating collaboration with Pixar. Now, hot on the paw pads of [...]

Read the full article →

In Review: The Price of Kings: Shimon Peres

by Mairéad Roche 3 May 2012

One of two companion documentaries from directors Joanna Natasegara and Richard Symons, The Price of Kings: Shimon Peres looks at the life of current Israeli president Shimon Peres. Born into a devout Polish Jewish family, Peres immigrated to Israel before World War II and the holocaust

Read the full article →

In Review: The Lucky One

by Nicky Branagh 2 May 2012

If there’s one thing we know about a Nicholas Sparks story, it’s what to expect. So predictable is a Sparks narrative that we imagine the author has a checklist that he fills out before penning each novel. Following the commercial success of the romantic weepy writing machine’s previous theatrical adaptations, said list is now typed [...]

Read the full article →

In Review: Lucky Luke on DVD

by Jeff Galasso 2 May 2012

On the back of Jean Dujardin’s award winning turn in The Artist comes the release of Lucky Luke , a fanciful Wild West comedy based on a French graphic novel series. Released in 2009, but never to English speaking territories, it’s not hard to see why this offbeat take on American cowboys would have never [...]

Read the full article →

In Review: Monsieur Lazhar

by Mairéad Roche 1 May 2012

Set in a Montreal school, director Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar tells the story of the titular Bachir Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag), an Algerian immigrant to Quebec. Lazhar becomes the new teacher to a class of 11-12 year olds after their previous teacher committed suicide in their classroom, a suicide discovered by two of her pupils.

Read the full article →

Sundance London: Safety Not Guaranteed

by Mike Richardson 1 May 2012

As Sundance London drew to a close, this reviewer settled in to watch a film that seemed to encapsulate everything good about Robert Redford’s independent Film Festival; Safety Not Guaranteed is one of those tidy little indie films that Sundance loves to love.

Read the full article →

Films that time forgot: Virtual Sexuality

by Helen Cox 1 May 2012

Tomorrow Jim, Michelle, Oz, Kevin, Vicky, Heather and Stifler are, fairly randomly, reunited in American Reunion 13 years after their original big screen outing. Back in 1999 when the first American Pie was released however, another now-forgotten teen flick also came to cinemas – the odds of Justin, Jake, Chas and Hoover being scheduled in [...]

Read the full article →