child abuse tagged posts

September 8, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: One comment

Director: Andy Muschietti

Writers: Gary Dauberman (script), Stephen King (book)

Cast: James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, James Ransone, Jay Ryan, Andy Bean, Bill Skarsgård

Producers: Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Barbara Muschietti

Music: Benjamin Wallfisch

Cinematographer: Checco Varese

Editor: Jason Ballentine

Cert: 15

Running time: 171mins

Year: 2019

What’s the story: Twenty seven years after the terrifying events of 1989, members of the Losers gang must return to Derry once again to battle the monstrous evil taking the form of killer clown Pennywise.

What’s the verdict: Early on in Andy Muschietti’s closing chapter to his 2017 hit, successful horror author Bill Densborough (McAvoy) is wrestling with the en...

October 14, 2017, Posted in  Reviews Comments: One comment

Director: Lynne Ramsay

Writer: Lynne Ramsay (screenplay), Jonathan Ames (novel)

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Ekaterina Samsonov, Alessandro Nivola, Alex Manette, John Doman, Judith Roberts

Cert: 15

Running time: 95mins

Year: 2017

What’s the story: Troubled private investigator and enforcer Joe is charged with finding Nina, the daughter of a US senator trapped in an underage sex ring.

What’s the verdict: The sun must have boiled a few brains on La Croisette at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. That is the only explanation for the praise heaped on Lynne Ramsay’s achingly arthouse redressing of 80s action thrillers.

Winner of Best Actor for Joaquin Phoenix, (shared) Best Screenplay for Ramsay and Palme D’Or nominated, we’re crying a case of Emperor’s New Clothes with You Were Never Real...

September 9, 2017, Posted in  Reviews Comments: 7 comments

Director: Andy Muschietti

Writer: Cary Fukunaga, Chase Palmer, Gary Dauberman

Cast: Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacbos, Bill Skarsgård, Jackson Robert Scott

Cert: 15

Running time: 135mins

Year: 2017 

What’s the story: In the summer of 1989, almost a year after young Georgie Denbrough is murdered by an evil force, Georgie’s brother Bill and his gang of self-styled Losers vow to defeat whatever is plaguing their town of Derry.

What’s the verdict: After years languishing in the sewers of Development Hell, IT finally reaches cinema screens. And the reaction is one of relief.

Relief that the characters and tone of Stephen King’s macabre magnum opus have survived the transition.

Relief that the decision to mess around with the book’s fla...

December 30, 2016, Posted in  Features Comments: One comment

Oh 2016, you terrible year. What general miserableness was foisted upon us these past 12 months. Providing a light in the gloom were movies released this year; a great selection from which it was difficult to draw a top 10. But, we managed it and proudly present what we regard as the year’s best releases.

Before we get to that list, firstly a shout-out to those films that skirted the Top 10 but which didn’t make it in.  Ironically, we couldn’t find room for Room, Green Room, or The Keeping Room.  Captain America: Civil War was the only summer blockbuster worth bothering with, but again didn’t make the grade. Elvis & Nixon, The Nice Guys, Bone Tomahawk, The Hateful Eight, Creed. We salute you, but there were still 10 movies we placed above them.

Here they are – in reverse order as is cus...

October 9, 2016, Posted in  Reviews Comments: One comment

Director: Benedict Andrews

Writer: David Harrower (also play, Blackbird)

Cast: Rooney Mara, Ben Mendelsohn, Riz Ahmed, Ruby Stokes, Tara Fitzgerald, Natasha Little

Cert: 15

Running time: 94mins

Year: 2016 

What’s the story: Haunted-eyed 28-year-old woman Una (Mara) appears at the work place of old acquaintance Ray (Mendelsohn) to confront him about a shocking past event.

What’s the verdict: Adapted by David Harrower from his Tony award winning play Blackbird and helmed by Australian theatre director Benedict Peters, Una recalls the confrontational work of Alan Clarke.

In middle England, 15 years before Una re-appears in the life of Australian ex-pat Ray, the two of them had a sexual relationship that saw Ray imprisoned and Una traumatised...

January 16, 2016, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Tom McCarthy

Writer: Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer

Cast: Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Stanley Tucci

Cert: 15

Running time: 128mins

Year: 2015

What’s the story: Boston, 2001. The Spotlight team, investigative journalists at The Boston Globe, uncover decades of child abuse and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese. What will it take to bring the truth to light?

What’s the verdict: Spotlight opens in 1976 at Christmas time. But, there’s scant reason to be merry in this sober, shattering account of abuse in the Catholic Church.

A journalism film on par with The Insider, Salvador or, yes, All the President’s Men, this is also a lament/clarion call for factual reporting in an age of opinion...

September 16, 2015, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: July Jung

Writer: July Jung

Cast: Doona Bae, Kim Sae-ron, Song Sae-byeok

Cert: 18

Running time: 119mins

Year: 2014

Original title: Doheeya

The lowdown: July Jung’s debut movie is a good example of the powerful, satisfying melodrama Korean cinema can do so well. Wachowski muse Doona Bae is Young-Nam, a Seoul police chief banished to small coastal town and its small-minded residents. Soon she finds herself the reluctant protector of Do-hee, a teenage girl terrorised by her abusive father and grandmother. Captivating and tragic, with Bae deservedly winning Best Actress at the Asian Film Awards for her nuanced portrayal of a flawed, conflicted woman.

The full verdict: One of the best films of the past ten years is Lee Chang-dong’s Palme D’or nominated Secret Sunshine...