Projected Film

Runtime: 108mins | Director: Saul Dibb | Rating: 5 Stars This week I was incredibly lucky to be invited to see an advance screening of Journey’s End by The Uckfield Picture House – something I’m very grateful for. Not only was it a fantastic opportunity to be able to see the film before general release along with fellow cinephiles, but we were very fortunate to have the film introduced to us by Jack Holden, one of the actors in the film, who then gave a brilliant Q+A afterward. For those who don’t know, Journey’s End is an adaptation of the famous play by R. C. Sherriff which originally starred Laurence Olivier in 1928. Since then, there have been multiple adaptations (both on stage and screen) with the most recent being Saul Dibbs’. The film tells the story of a company of soldiers who are posted in Saint-Quentin and follow the real-life events of ‘Operation Michael’. Set almost entirely within the trenches, the film predominantly focusses on the relationship between ...

Runtime: 155mins | Director: Martin McDonagh | Rating: 5 Stars Before I sat down to write this review, I had the intention of eking my conclusion out to create some form of literary suspense. Having started writing just this second though, I can’t bring myself to do it. This film is nothing short of a masterpiece, and you should go and see it as soon as possible. Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I’ll elaborate on why. Set in the small rural town of (yep, you guessed it) Ebbing, Missouri, the story tells of a mother, Mildred (Frances McDonagh), whose daughter was murdered. Despite this, the local police force was never able to solve the crime. Deeply dissatisfied by their attempts, Mildred purchases the rights to advertise on three disused billboards on which she calls the police department out for not having solved the crime. Following her bold move, the billboards cause a huge amount of controversy in Ebbing creating problems not only for the police departmen...

Runtime: 119mins | Director: Jake Kasdan | Rating: 5 Stars When I first saw the trailer for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle , I won’t lie, I was horrified. “They’ve made it into a video game?! What the f**k is this?!” “This film is going to do nothing but bastardise the memory of Robin Williams – how dare they!” “It doesn’t look remotely funny and it will probably have abysmal CGI – I’m out.” Despite all my claims above, I still went to see it, and what can I say? When you’re wrong, you’re wrong, and I’ll hold my hands up freely - I loved it. The film begins with four high school kids getting put into detention together – an athlete, a nerd, a popular hot girl, and an outcast – you know the drill. Whilst in detention, however, they discover the game Jumanji which has transformed from an antiquated board game into a slightly less old looking games console. In an attempt to procrastinate, the four children play the game, pick their respective characters, and inev...

For me, 2017 felt like a very mixed bag for film. There were a lot of brilliant films which were a joy to see, but unfortunately, there were also a lot of disappointments – Justice League , Loving Vincent and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 are just a few examples. In this post though, I’ll be listing my top 3 favourite films of the year, opting to focus on the good, rather than the bad. Let’s start 2018 positively! Get Out This was undoubtedly my favourite film of 2017. I must admit, initially, I was sceptical of it due to being a long-time fan of the 1967 film, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, which featured a very similar premise. Fortunately, whilst similar in nature, the films were distinct and Get Out naturally hit’s much harder due to the more liberal time we live in (though the film leads us to question just how liberal we really are…). The film tells the story of Chris who is invited to meet his girlfriend’s (Rose) family at their rural home in America. On the sur...