The Review at the End of the Universe
A father and son travel across Ireland to scatter their late wife and mother’s ashes on a remote lake in Elfar Adalsteins’ End of Sentence. Right from the very beginning this film makes it abundantly clear what the audience is in for. Anna Fogle (Andrea Irvine) visits her son Sean (Logan Lerman) in prison with…
Robert Budreau’s The Captor -also known as Stockholm– delivers a fictionalised account of the 1973 bank heist and hostage situation that served as the origin of the well known term “Stockholm Syndrome”. Hostage situations are common fodder for movies as they’re a great excuse for a director to show their command of pace and tension…
A man who suffers from a rare form of narcolepsy that causes him to pass out whenever he feels strong happiness has his coping techniques put to the test when he falls in love in Jason Winer’s Ode to Joy. A comedy centred around the premise of someone suffering from a condition may seem somewhat…
The 73rd Edinburgh International Film Festival begins with Ninian Doff’s Boyz in the Wood; the comedic tale of a group of wayward teens venturing into the Highlands to complete the Duke of Edinburgh award. At its core this is a coming of age story focusing on four young boys who are ultimately fairly directionless in…
A sanitation worker becomes obsessed with uncovering the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of a young boy in Simon Fellows’ Steel Country. There are parts of America that have all but been forgotten about by those in power. These areas were once the centre of industry but have fallen into a state of dilapidation as…
People from different walks of life have their world view challenged when attending an Australian folk music festival over the course of 3 consecutive years in Ben Elton’s Three Summers. Normally I don’t bring in context when reviewing a film but in some cases it’s unavoidable and really important in terms of understanding why the film…
A young man has to deal wiith family issues and widespread social unrest against the backdrop of the 2011 London riots in Jamie Jones’ Obey. The 2011 London riots is a significant event that will be relatively fresh in the minds of a lot of people given the widespread consequences of those events that resonate to…
The Parrs return for another super powered family adventure in Brad Bird’s long awaited Incredibles 2. The Incredibles came out before the current superhero renaissance that currently fills screens. There were superhero films at the time but not to the same extent or standard that we have now so it stood out as something new,…
A father and daughter bond over their love of playing/creating music during her final summer before leaving for college in Brett Haley’s Hearts Beat Loud. I saw this film as part of the 2018 Edinburgh International Film Festival and had no idea what to expect going in as is often the case for festival films. All…
A young girl feels compelled to take responsibility for taking care of her family when her mother fails to be up to the challenge in James Gardner’s Jellyfish. Sarah Taylor (Liv Hill) doesn’t have a great life. The entire film focuses on Sarah as our eyes into the world that she lives in and it makes…
