drugs
Despite promise and an interesting concept, Zen Dog in anything but unique disintegrating into a series of indie tropes.
Despite a strong cast and scattered moments of inspiration, Superfly is sorely lacking in consistency on both a visual and narrative level.
A searingly authentic piece of work, Cardboard Gangsters brings complexity and surprising humanity to a world of gangsters, persuasively evoking the lives of marginalized people.
Far from the average Netflix indie, 6 Balloons is a thrilling turn for its co-stars and a promising sophomore picture for its director.
Unsane has been filmed with an iPhone, giving the picture a paranoia-fuelled low-fi fuzz. This is more than just a marketing gimmick, as Soderbergh’s film centers on the idea of stalking – a timely focal point considering the mass of sexual allegations that Hollywood has found itself mired in.
The story of Braven may sound all-too-familiar, yet its wintry setting, inventive action sequences, and a strong presence by Jason Momoa and supporting cast help it to rise above many like-minded films.
Laying blame is a difficult one because nothing is particularly awful in American Made: even the screenplay peppers a handful of decent set pieces and sequences throughout – but there’s nobody on-hand to elevate the picture.
By the Time it Gets Dark is a cinematic classic that will beg to be watched, decided and marvelled at, time and time again.
In the latest of our Take Two series, we tackle Requiem for a Dream, the drug-fueled nightmare that launched Darren Aronofsky into stardom.
T2 Trainspotting, though enjoyable in its own right, ultimately relies too heavily on nostalgia for the original to be a complete success.
White Girl reflects the embodiment of societal and interpersonal dysfunction while exploring the role of the body in film and in life.
In recent years, the gangster film seems to be a stale genre, with a majority of the films lacking any distinctive qualities. Last year’s Black Mass is a prime example, with the only really memorable aspect of the film being Johnny Depp’s performance. Viewed against this backdrop, then, The Infiltrator just manages to stand out amongst modern films.
I first watched Party Monster a couple of years ago, when once-infamous club promoter Michael Alig was released from prison, where he served 17 years for brutally murdering his drug dealer. The 2003 biopic, based on James St James’ memoir, “Disco Bloodbath”, flew under the radar during its initial release. But the film’s subject, “Club Kids” of ’90s Manhattan, once commanded TV screens across the country.
We know that the hemp plant has been used in production of products since at least the 1600s. Up until the 1930s, marijuana was legal, used, and widely accepted. In the 1930s, with the onset of the great depression and American paranoia, “reefer madness” propaganda started to sprout up, as a huge anti-marijuana prohibition came underway.
The old is boring and the new is exciting; right or wrong, that’s just how our brains our wired. So when something is in danger of becoming not just old but extinct, it’s only natural that they would seek to extend their longevity by latching onto something new. We could be witnessing an extinction event for one such aging institution, the daily newspaper.