Tale of Tales (2015)

As its name suggests, Tale of Tales is an anthology film, retelling three Italian fairytales through the lens of high fantasy (and a splash of Game-of-Thrones-esque sexuality). Despite a rave reception after opening last year’s Cannes, it has little to offer beyond impressively baroque aesthetics and a few standout performances. The three stories – of…

Warcraft (2016)

I believe video games can be adapted into great movies. There’s a wealth of interesting stories to be extracted from the industry. Warcraft is one such franchise ripe for cinematic exploitation, but alas, in the name of ‘world building,’ director Duncan Jones has simply tried to cram in too many stories at once. Would it be…

Money Monster (2016)

Money Monster arrives amidst a groundswell of anger towards corporate greed and economic fraud in America. It’s a timely film that benefits from its social relevancy, but cannot sharpen its message to truly resonate with its audience on the same wavelength as similar films in recent years, like The Big Short. Directed by Jodie Foster…

Truman (2015)

Truman’s tone is set from its opening scene. Telling the tale of a long-term friendship between two men, Julián (Ricardo Darín) and Tomás (Javier Cámara), tested by the former’s terminal illness, it begins by chronicling the banal vagaries of Tomás’ lengthy transit from his home in Canada to Madrid, Spain. The weariness of Tomás’s journey…

Isla Bonita (2015)

Every now and again, I find myself drawn to films not for any particular artistic or narrative merit, but simply because I’m for an evocation of a mood and place. With an extended European holiday on the horizon, Isla Bonita certainly scratches the itch of idle European tranquillity, set pretty well entirely on the –…

The Huntsman: Winter’s War (2016)

The Huntsman: Winter’s War traffics pretty well exclusively in clichés. Oh, you can point to Frozen – Emily Blunt’s ice queen, the ‘power of love’ – or Lord of the Rings – there’s a golden circle emblazoned with Elvish runes that drives people to murder and dwarven comic relief (Nick Frost, Sheridan Smith, Rob Brydon)…

Sucker (2015)

Lawrence Leung is many things – writer, comedian, actor, magician – but most of all he’s a great storyteller. If you’ve watched any of his shows – at a comedy festival or on television – you’d be familiar with his knack for transforming a thin premise into a transfixing tale. Sucker is one such tale:…