Scott Pilgrim is a weakling, socially awkward, doesn’t drink, rarely gets a haircut, only wears his favourite T-shirts. If you just read your own bio, this is your new favourite movie. Adapted from Brian O’Malley’s comic-book saga with breakneck stylistic verve by director Edgar Wright, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World is the ultimate geek wish-fulfilment flick. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 4% [?]
Conventional star-ratings don’t apply to INLAND EMPIRE. Yes, David Lynch insists it’s capitalised. No, he’s not saying why. Shot without a finished script over two-and-a-half years, Lynch’s first feature in half a decade is his most ambitious brain-twister ever. Teetering on the brink of his subconscious – as far inland as we’ve ever gone – this epic mystery is a branch of the then-61-year-old maverick’s DNA: strange, familiar and utterly unique. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 3% [?]
Fear and desire, paranoia and lost innocence, sex and violence, betrayal and revenge… The mean streets of film noir? Or the school daze of adolescence? Brilliantly spliced and sutured in Rian Johnson’s ultra-cool indie debut, they’re parallel universes with a perfect fit. Teen noir? Could be a gimmick. But Brick’s opening scene of a dead body face-down in the water is the closest it comes to film-nerd shot homage. Johnson’s genre-riffing mystery thriller is much smarter than that. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 5% [?]
Every superhero blockbuster needs a Gotta See That Again action sequence. Superman Returns had the plane hurtling towards a baseball stadium. The Dark Knight had the crash’n'smash underpass chase. Even Fantastic Four had the lorry losing a shoulder-barge with Michael Chiklis.
Aftering surprising everyone with cinema’s freshest, funniest new super-franchise, director Jon Favreau begins his sequel exactly where he started: a fatherless man hammering out an arc reactor in a dark hole in the Earth. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 8% [?]
“The edge… There is no honest way to explain it, because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.” Lightning-powered by a hot cocktail of tequila, mescaline, anger and idealism, Hunter S Thompson spent his life hunting that edge. But as Alex Gibney’s overlong documentary does make clear, Thompson’s deadliest vice wasn’t substance but style: it was fame that fried his brain more than drug or drink. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 12% [?]
Ricky Gervais could be a fat Jack Lemmon. In his first Hollywood leading role as a miserablist New York dentist who can’t stand other people, Gervais nails funny, fumbling pathos as smartly as his trademark bum-puckering quips and deadpan sarcasm. He’s Bertram Pincus (“It’s Pink-Ass, right?), a man who, after flatlining briefly during bowel surgery, wakes to find he sees dead people. Everywhere. And they all want to talk to him. Think Ghost
Popularity: 7% [?]
How do you turn 10 sentences into a $100 dollar movie? Maverick moviemaker and Hollywood’s original Wild Thing Spike Jonze has spent five years mud-wrestling with his adaptation
Popularity: 7% [?]
Before he went galactic as Star Trek’s new-look Captain Kirk, Chris Pine was stuck with roles like this: a 22-year-old virgin who was born blind but might get his sight back thanks to experimental brain surgery. Casually rugged and charming, Pine does his best to manoeuvre past lines like “I love the sound of your smile” but can’t make this odd little movie work. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 6% [?]
Hurtling at you like some surreal techno-nightmare, Gamer
Popularity: 6% [?]
Hot glances, forbidden desires, untamed passions and swooning hearts… Just some of things missing from this bloodless second bite of The R-Pattz Show. Sorry, the Twilight saga. But who are we kidding? You’ll see it anyway.
New Moon
Popularity: 10% [?]
Jonathan Crocker is a freelance journalist based in London. Having previously been a commissioning editor at Total Film, Men’s Health and Time Out, Jonathan also contributes to publications including i-D magazine, ShortList, Little White Lies, TheLondonPaper and Wired. He is available for commissions: contact here!
