October 12, 2018, Posted in  Reviews Comments: 2 comments

Director: Ognjen Glavonic

Writer: Ognjen Glavonic

Cast: Leon Lucev, Pavle Cemerikic

Cert: 15 (TBC)

Running time: 98mins

Year: 2018 

What’s the story: During the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia, a truck driver must transport mysterious cargo from Kosovo to Belgrade.

What’s the verdict: Ognjen Glavonic’s feature debut is a pared back, near anti-thriller set against NATO’s bombing of Slobodan Milosevic’s Serbian regime in 1999.

Leon Lucev is Vlada, a truck driver transporting secret cargo for the military from Kosovo to Belgrade. The rules are he is not permitted to stop, and must not try to discover what is in the back of his padlocked lorry.

Forced to take an alternate route following a vicious looking car accident on a key bridge, Vlada breaks protocol by picking up young hitchh...

October 11, 2018, Posted in  Reviews Comments: One comment

Director: Boots Riley

Writer: Boots Riley

Cast: Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Steven Yuen, Omari Hardwick, Danny Glover, Kate Berlant, Armie Hammer, David Cross, Lily James

Cert: 15

Running time: 111mins

Year: 2018

What’s the story: A lowly telemarketer discovers as his fortunes improve the world seems to grow more insane.

What’s the verdict: Boots Riley’s wildly, willfully bizarre feature debut is so packed with invention, barbed satire, surrealism, egalitarian philosophy, and radical gear shifts it is best experienced with its surprises unspoiled.

So, we’ll try to provide a flavour of what to expect without revealing everything on the menu. But, how best to describe Sorry To Bother You?

Imagine if Get Out, Brazil, Being John Malkovich and Office Space go...

October 10, 2018, Posted in  Reviews Comments: One comment

Director: Steve McQueen

Writer: Steve McQueen, Gillian Flynn (script), Lynda La Plante (original TV series)

Cast: Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Erivo, Brian Tyree Henry, Carrie Coon, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, Daniel Kaluuya, Jackie Weaver, Liam Neeson, Garrett Dillahunt, Jon Bernthal

Cert: 15 (TBC)

Running time: 129mins

Year: 2018

What’s the story: In Chicago, four women are left owing $2m to a crime lord when their husbands are killed attempting to steal his money.

What’s the verdict: Remaking a 35-year old ITV thriller may seem an odd choice for Steve McQueen as a follow-up to his Best Director Oscar winning 12 Years a Slave.

But, a fan of the series, he takes the framework of Lynda La Plante’s original story and, along with co-writer Gillian (Go...

October 8, 2018, Posted in  Podcast Comments: No comments

In this episode of The Electric Shadows Podcast, Robs Daniel & Wallis are slightly stunned to realise they’ve reached their 50th podcast! To mark the occasion they discuss their formative movies, which movie makers made the biggest impression on them, and why films are just so darn important.

In a trademark freewheeling, tangent embracing chat, the pair cover formative child movies, films that choke them up, first movies owned, films that got them into films, and leave the listener with two recommendations.

Rob W gets the opportunity to test out his vocal skills while the two ruminate on the Best Comedy Of All Time, while Rob D recalls annoying a friend’s parents in his quest to get an at that time hard to obtain Martin Scorsese flick.

Thanks to all those listeners who have checked out an...

September 9, 2018, Posted in  Podcast Comments: No comments

Episode 49 is a bumper edition of The Electric Shadows Podcast. Robs Daniel and Wallis round-up FrightFest 2018; Rob D waxes enthusiastic about Pascal Laugier’s Incident in a Ghostland and Sam Ashurst’s Frankenstein’s Creature and Rob Wallis is impressed with Gaspar Noe’s Climax… so to speak.

Read Electric Shadow’s FrightFest 2018 coverage here

As this is the first podcast since July, the pair capsule review Spike Lee’s excellent BlackkKlansman, they differ over Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Rob W reveals what he thought of The Meg, The Children’s Act, Christopher Robin and more.

Then onto the main course, as the Robs reveal what is getting them excited about the BFI London Film Festival 2018...

September 5, 2018, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

His 2007 feature debut may have been titled Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer, but writer/director Jon Knautz has become a filmmaker notable for movies providing women with complex, meaty roles. Sure, the films he directs and co-writes swim in the more shadowy side of the lake, but works such as The Shrine, Girlhouse and Goddess of Love are notable for their compelling female leads and character driven stories.

This also applies to The Cleaning Lady, Knautz’s latest movie, co-created with regular collaborator Alexis Kendra. As well as performing co-writing and producing duties, Kendra also stars as Alice, a “love addict” feeling trapped in a joyless affair with a married man. To distract herself from this, Alice befriends Rachel Alig’s shy Shelley, the cleaning lady in her building...

September 1, 2018, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Tom de Ville

Writer: Tom de Ville

Cast: Maisie Williams, Jamie Davis, Archie Duffy, Joe Wolstenholme, Edward Wallace

Cert: 12

Running time: 11mins

Year: 2018

What’s the story: Young ornithophile Jay (Williams) attempts to nurse a crow, injured by local boys. Those boys then set their sights on Jay.

What’s the verdict: No matter how long it takes, some directors must get their story told. Writer/director Tom de Ville fits nicely into that bracket; his memorable, unusual Corvidae spent six years reaching the screen.

The bulk of principal shooting occurred back in December 2012, with editing, scoring, reshoots and FX work filling out the rest of the time (with crowdfunding assistance, presumably for the visual effects shots).

Happily, the result was worth both time and effor...

August 29, 2018, Posted in  Reviews Comments: One comment

Director: Sonny Laguna, Tommy Wiklund

Writer: S. Craig Zahler (script), Charles Band, Kenneth J. Hall (characters created by)

Cast: Thomas Lennon, Barbara Crampton, Michael Paré, Jenny Pellicer, Nelson Franklin, Udo Kier, Charlyne Yi, Skeeta Jenkins

Cert: 18 (TBC)

Running time: 90mins

Year: 2018

What’s the story: Edgar (Lennon) and friends travel to a small town to auction a puppet belonging to a serial killer murdered there decades before. But, in the hotel Edgar and other puppet bearing guests discover some toys bite back.

What’s the verdict: A bargain bin horror franchise since inception back in 1989, audiences are likely to be drawn to this soft Puppet Master reboot chiefly because it’s scripted by Bone Tomahawk and Brawl in Cell Block 99 creator S. Craig Zahler.

Yet, wherea...

August 28, 2018, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Demián Rugna

Writer: Demián Rugna

Cast: Maximiliano Ghione, George L. Lewis, Elvira Onetto

Cert: 15 (TBC)

Running time: 87mins

Year: 2018

What’s the story: When supernatural occurrences on a quiet suburban street lead to death, a police detective enlists the help of parapsychologists.

What’s the verdict: Reportedly Argentina’s first foray into paranormal horror, Demián Rugna’s Terrified lives up to its mission-statement title. Exploring territory previously charted by Ju-on, Insidious, Paranormal Activity and dozens of other supernatural shockers, writer/director Rugna nevertheless mines fresh jumps and jolts out of his fiendish little tale.

On a suburban street in a nondescript town something odd is happening...

August 28, 2018, Posted in  Reviews Comments: 2 comments

Director: Kristian A. Söderström

Writer: Kristian A. Söderström

Cast: Stefan Sauk, Lena Nilsson, Amanda Ooms, Martin Wallström, Sven Wollter, Carolin Stoltz

Cert: 18 (TBC)

Running time: 93mins

Year: 2018

What’s the story: Former video store owner Ennio (Sauk) begins to doubt his friends when a valuable VHS that could solve his money problems is stolen.

What’s the verdict: A surprisingly touching examination of late middle-age regret, Videoman is a slippery debut from Swedish writer/director Kristian A. Söderström. Part Ken Loach or Aki Kaurismäki social drama, part giallo thriller, it takes a sensitive look at curdled nostalgia and obsession.

Ennio lives in the basement of a snowy Gothenburg apartment block...