Solo: A Star Wars Story

The Star Wars franchise delivers the backstory of iconic scoundrel and smuggler in Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. Prequels are a tricky business because storytellers have to sell an adventure that audiences will already know about in a broad sense. The Star Wars franchise has a troubled history with prequels thanks to the…

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

A grieving mother openly challenges the local authorities for failing to solve her daughter’s murder by using billboards to make her feelings clear in Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. This film’s theme can simply be summed up as “life is unfair”. It forms the basis of the various character stories here and comes…

War for the Planet of the Apes

The saga started in Rise of the Planet of the Apes comes to an end in Matt Reeves’ War for the Planet of the Apes. I’ve been a huge fan of these films since the first one. Taking a well known concept like Planet of the Apes and turning it on its head to focus…

Lost in London

Woody Harrelson directs a semi autobiographical account of a very strange night that progressively gets worse as it goes on in Lost in London. Much will be said about how this film was done rather than the actual content of it. It was a really ambitious project as it was shot in a single take…

The Edge of Seventeen

A young girl struggles to make it through adolescence in Kelly Fremon Craig’s coming of age story The Edge of Seventeen. Angsty teen dramas are a dime a dozen in today’s entertainment landscape in both TV and film so it can be very difficult for one to stand out. The most interesting thing about this…

Now You See Me 2

Jon M. Chu’s Now You See Me 2 is the sequel that nobody asked for to a film that –as far as I can tell- nobody loved enough to want to see more. It must have made money otherwise we wouldn’t be here. This time out, the Horsemen are tasked with stealing a computer chip…

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

Finally it’s over. The Hunger Games franchise comes to an end with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 where Katniss and the rest of her band of rebels take the fight to the Capitol to change the world once and for all. Some of you may remember my review of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part…

True Detective – Season 2 Episode 3

“Maybe Tomorrow” In fairly surreal fashion, True Detective episode three begins with a musical number – Conway Twitty’s version of “The Rose” – inside Ray Velcoro’s head.  Could these be the last flashes of electricity dancing through his dying brain?  He’s at his usual seat at the bar; his own personal purgatory.  Seated across from…