In 2007, I was a zombie and I was murdered by a man named Graham Clarke. Okay, I was actually a hungry film student in Los Angeles and I was working on a short film in which Graham played the hero. In student films, “working” also means being the token extra and that’s how I ended up doing my best zombie shuffle in Among the Dead.
Have you ever wanted validation that your cat is, in fact, a jerk? Or maybe that the crack in your window is from your pug being agitated by squirrels? Even more scandalous is that it was your parakeet playing on your Xbox Live account rather than your roommate.
Testament Of Youth is based on Vera Brittain’s memoir of the same name. Her book pays homage to her own losses while growing up during World War I, but also the great loss felt by her generation. Brittain’s book is perhaps unique in that in the UK we are often told about the loss of life during the war.
WARNING: Minor nostalgia and deprecation on Hollywood. At first, you try not to care because this is a new generation.
Ignorance truly is bliss. Before watching Joshua Oppenheimer’s harrowing 2012 documentary The Act of Killing, I had no knowledge of the 1965-1966 genocide in Indonesia, which was initially intended on purging “communists” from Indonesian society, but resulted in a million innocent people being massacred. That I could have no awareness of the subject could be blamed on western ignorance – upon receiving the BAFTA for best documentary, Oppenheimer claimed that the UK and US were partly responsible for these atrocities to happen due to their insistence on destroying communism at any cost (a statement that was naturally cut out of the TV broadcast).
I implore you to actually take the time and think about the concept of climbing Mouth Everest. Imagine the possibility of falling rocks or ice, the extreme temperature, breathing thinner air, lack of medical care, and all the other things that make rock climbing a generally bad idea. Never-mind the fact you will probably never be on the same level as the Sherpa people of Tibet who are renowned for their mountaineering skill.
Like many people, I was a great fan of Bridesmaids and The Heat, so it was likely that the newest film to pair Paul Feig and Melissa McCarthy would be right up my alley. Likely, but even I had my doubts over Spy. A spy comedy?
Every week Film Inquiry publishes the movies that are opening in cinemas! This week: Ted 2, Max, Big Game, Batkid Begins and The Little Death.
Joe Strummer, born John Grammar Mellon, is best known as the scowling, screaming, warrior-poet who sang lead vocals and played rhythm guitar for the “only band that matters”: The Clash. The man with the gravel voice and the idealist political agenda was never afraid to voice his opinions on current events.
If there is one thing you can say about Bill Murray, it is that he is a unique entity in this life. The man always goes for interesting roles, except that one time with the orange cat, but that is beside the point. In Rock The Kasbah, a music manager on the opposite side of fortunate discovers a teenage girl with an outstanding voice.
“There’s no such thing as nothing.” Paranoid. Obsessive.
As a child, I loved the old Westerns. In fact, I was named after a particular cowboy played by the great Alan Ladd. There was a lovely romance that existed between those with honor and those without in the Wild West.
The ‘Suspension Of Disbelief’ is an important factor in the consumption of art, any sort of art. Whenever we are presented with a vision of the fictional world our enjoyment of it rests on us deciding for one moment to accept it as realistic fact. For example, we all know a time-travelling DeLorean is frankly impossible, but if we were to spend the entire of Back To The Future considering how highly unlikely Marty’s adventure was, well, then we would not get swept into the story, and would certainly not enjoy ourselves as much.
On November 15th, 2013, a little boy, Miles Scott, received the opportunity to be his favorite hero, Batman. The Make-a-wish foundation helped turned San Francisco into Gotham City to make this wish come true. They staged a rescue, he took on the Riddler, and even received a greeting by President Barack Obama.
The Voices, the English language debut of French-Iranian director Marjane Satrapi, unarguably gives Ryan Reynolds the best acting role of his career. Sadly, his gleefully maniacal performance is the sole positive – and that is most likely due to the lack of interesting roles he’s been given throughout his career that make this performance stand out in comparison. The character he’s playing is badly devised and written, yet Reynolds somehow manages to make the character compelling.