The Review at the End of the Universe
Justin Trefgarne’s Narcopolis takes place in the not too distant future where recreational drugs are legal with some of the more dangerous narcotics off limits. The film follows a determined drug enforcement cop Frank Grieves (Elliot Cowan) who is taken off a mysterious case involving an unidentified corpse. Narcopolis has a story that needlessly complicates…
Martin Radich’ Norfolk is the story of a father who feels the need to kill one last time while his son deals with the consequences. Denis Ménochet is the father,only known as “Man” in this film, Barry Keoghan is the son, only known as “Boy”. The father is tortured by the past that apparently shaped…
Steven Nesbit’s North V. South attempts to loosely adapt the famous Shakespeare play Romeo & Juliet and set it in modern day Britain amidst the backdrop of a gangland dispute. Shakespeare is definitely one of literature’s most adapted writers. The reason for this is that his stories at their core have a timeless quality to them. Many…
Directing duo Joseph Bull and Luke Seomore’s Blood Cells follows a man living a transient existence compelled to return to his family when a profound event happens. Adam (Barry Ward) is the son of a dairy farmer who lost everything when their herds were culled as a result of the foot and mouth crisis. Ever…
The 2015 Edinburgh Film Festival had Scott Graham’s Iona serve as the closing night event. Iona is about a woman named Iona (Ruth Negga) who takes her son to live on the island she was named after following a violent crime that they need to hide from. I don’t really have a lot to say about this…
Douglas Boswell’s Belgian family film Labyrinthus tells the story of a young boy who gets trapped inside a video game with very real stakes. The closest comparison that can be drawn to this film is Jumanji meets The Matrix. It’s definitely not as dark or philosophically intense as the latter but there are enough common elements to make…
Jamie Babbit’s Addicted to Fresno -or simply Fresno as it was known when I saw it at the Edinburgh International Film Festival- follows a recovering sex addict and her sister who get in way over their head after a relapse accidentally ends with a death that the sisters scramble to cover up. Judy Greer plays…
Jon Watts’ Cop Car focuses on two 10 year old boys who take a seemingly abandoned cop car for a joy ride and find themselves in a whole heap of trouble as a result. The film opens with the two boys, Travis (James Freedson-Jackson) and Harrison (Hays Wellford) wandering through a field trading knowledge of curse…
Talulah Riley’s Scottish rom-com Scottish Mussel attempts to educate viewers on the plight of the Mussel that faces constant threat from pearl thieves. I have to say that going in I had no idea that people murdering Mussels to steal the pearl within was an issue that demanded immediate attention but after seeing this I am…
Zach Lipovsky adapts the highly successful Dead Rising video game series into a film with Dead Rising: Watchtower. We’ve all seen zombie movies before and have probably seen films adapted from video games before so this isn’t new territory at all. Zombies have been so heavily saturated over the past few years that it’s really difficult for an…
