Insurgent (2015)

On the surface, Insurgent appears to be a substantial upgrade to Divergent. The cast is fleshed out with the likes of Naomi Watts and Octavia Spencer, we’ve got a new director (Robert Schwentke, responsible for The Time Traveller’s Wife and, uh, R.I.P.D.) and we’ve even moved to the third dimension. Visually, we’ve definitely stepped things…

Miles Teller in Whiplash (2014)

Whiplash (2014)

What defines the iconic horror villain? There are a few superficial commonalities to be found among the usual suspects: they’re almost invariably men, sometimes bald, always terrifying in their relentless opacity. If these are the criteria, then surely Terence Fletcher, as embodied by J.K. Simmons, qualifies. Fletcher is the conductor of the fictional Shaffer Music…

Shailene Woodley and Theo James in Divergent (2014)

Divergent (2014)

The consensus on Divergent, the latest piece of young adult literature to be rendered onto the big screen, is that it’s a watered-down Hunger Games ripoff (often accompanied by an uninspired pun on the title and the film’s lack of originality, and an underlying assumption that art directed at teenage girls is inherently inferior). I’m…