DVD & Digital

DVD review: The Nice Guys

Garry Arnot1 Comment

theniceguys

Shane Black is no stranger to the crime buddy movie genre, having penned the screenplays for the Lethal Weapon films through the late eighties and early nineties. Now, as a director and co-writer alongside Anthony Bagarozzi, he returns to the field for neo-noir comedy ‘The Nice Guys’ starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. When hard-man enforcer Jackson Healy (Crowe) is hired to rough up private eye Holland March (Gosling), to say they get off on the wrong foot would be an understatement. However, circumstances around the mysterious death of porn star Misty Mountains force them to form an unlikely alliance. Together the mismatched pair aim to track down a missing girl linked with the investigation, leading to an action-packed and hilarious wild-goose-chase through the underbelly of 1970s Los Angeles.

Continue reading “DVD review: The Nice Guys” →

DVD & Digital

DVD review: Everybody Wants Some!!

Garry Arnot1 Comment
everybodywantssome
  In 1993, writer and director Richard Linklater helped launch the careers of Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey with cult teen comedy Dazed & Confused. Now he is back in the same academic territory with what is being considered the ‘spiritual sequel’. Named after the Van Halen song, coming-of-age flick Everybody Wants Some!! follows freshman Jake (Blake Jenner) as he begins a baseball scholarship in Texas 1980. When he arrives at his new digs, he meets his many housemates including party animal Finnegan (Glen Powell), fun-loving Dale (J. Quinton Johnson) and hallucinogen hooligan Willoughby (Wyatt Russell), and is instantly initiated into their chaotic college culture.

Continue reading “DVD review: Everybody Wants Some!!” →

DVD & Digital

DVD review: Green Room

Garry Arnot2 Comments
green-room-header

The positive critical reception of low-budget revenge film Blue Ruin helped served as a financial springboard for writer-director Jeremy Saulnier’s next project. Sticking with colour-themed titles, Green Room follows four-piece punk band The Ain’t Rights as they tour through the Pacific Northwest. Led by Pat (Anton Yelchin), the group find themselves gigging at a very shady, isolated bar where most of the clientele are vicious neo-Nazis. After their suitably riotous performance, they are horrified to witness a brutal murder in the venue’s green room, and are held hostage by Darcy (Patrick Stewart) and his gang of skinheads. The group, musically influenced by artists such as The Misfits and Minor Threat, come together in an intense battle for survival but in their situation the threat they face is far from minor.

Continue reading “DVD review: Green Room” →

DVD & Digital

DVD review: Suburra

Garry Arnot2 Comments

suburra

In Italy, organised crime and politics have never seemed worlds apart and the affiliation between the two is dissected in Stefano Sollima’s latest feature ‘Suburra’, named after a quarter of ancient Rome. The neo-noir drama is based on a novel by Carlo Bonini and Giancarlo De Cataldo, and marks a return to film for the director following his television work on the likes of Gomorra and Romanzo Criminale. Set in 2011, the contemporary tale of corruption centres around shady lawyer Filippo ‘Pippo’ Malgradi (Pierfrancesco Favino) as he mixes business with pleasure in Rome’s criminal underworld. A feared Mafioso going by the name of Samurai (Claudio Amendola) is behind a project to turn the capital’s waterfront into the “Las Vegas of Europe” but when local mobsters inadvertently foil his plans, a violent gang war ensues that spells trouble for Malgradi and everyone around him.

Continue reading “DVD review: Suburra” →

DVD & Digital

DVD review: True Story

Garry Arnot2 Comments

truestory

If you see that Jonah Hill and James Franco are in the same film, you’d be forgiven for assuming it would be a lightweight comic affair, given their mutual associations and previous work. However, in artistic theatre director Rupert Goold’s first foray into film, laughs are nowhere to be found. The mystery thriller ‘True Story’ is based on the memoir of the same name by former New York Times writer Mike Finkel, following his journalistic fall from grace. After losing his job due to fabricated storytelling, Finkel (Hill) discovers that Christian Longo (Franco), who is awaiting trial for the murder of his wife and three children, is using his name as an alias. Eager to explore the matter further, he arranges a prison visit, which triggers a psychological meeting of the minds that changes both of their lives forever.

Continue reading “DVD review: True Story” →

DVD & Digital

DVD review: Miles Ahead

Garry ArnotLeave a comment

hero_Miles-Ahead-2016

  When actor Don Cheadle was approached to portray Miles Davis, it transformed into the perfect project for his directorial debut, and developed into a labour of love centred around one of the pioneers of jazz music, or ‘social music’ as Davis would call it. Cheadle co-writes, stars in and directs Miles Ahead, a biopic of sorts that looks back on the life and career of the controversial, innovative musician. When Rolling Stone journalist Dave Brill (Ewan McGregor) turns up at Davis’ door to discuss a comeback album, he receives a less than frosty reception. He perseveres and the forms an unlikely friendship with his interviewee, and helps him out when new material is snatched by smarmy producer Harper Hamilton (Michael Stuhlbarg). Meanwhile, Davis reminisces about his muse Frances Taylor (Emayatzy Corinealdi) and their passionate, but turbulent relationship.

Continue reading “DVD review: Miles Ahead” →

DVD & Digital

DVD review: The Jungle Book

Garry Arnot1 Comment
The-Jungle-book5

Disney classics have been transitioning to live-action pictures of late with Snow White, Robin Hood and Cinderella having already received the cinematic treatment and Beauty & the Beast and Tarzan in the pipeline. Based on Rudyard Kipling’s works of the same name, the multi-talented actor and director Jon Favreau steps up to the plate to direct The Jungle Book, the latest adaptation of the beloved story. Mowgli (Neel Sethi) is an orphaned man cub, raised by wolves after wise black panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) finds him alone in the jungle. When all of the animals gather to drink during a water truce in the dry season, wicked tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba) learns of Mowgli’s place in the community. Out for revenge against man following an attack years earlier, Khan wishes death upon Mowgli after the drought has passed. To protect his adoptive family, Mowgli flees the wolf pack and soon meets roguish, but fun-loving bear Baloo (Bill Murray) who takes him under his wing.

Continue reading “DVD review: The Jungle Book” →

DVD & Digital

DVD review: Becoming Zlatan

Garry ArnotLeave a comment
zlatan
  In the summer that egotistical Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović has retired from International football and his club future is uncertain, he is also the subject of a documentary directed by brothers Fredrik and Magnus Gertten. Becoming Zlatan focuses on the beginnings of his playing career and his move from Malmö FF to Ajax in 2001. It is a coming-of-age story of sorts as he transitions from the young and confident Zlatan to the slightly older and even more confident rich Zlatan ahead of assuming the media persona he has had for years since.

Continue reading “DVD review: Becoming Zlatan” →

DVD & Digital

DVD review: Traders

Garry Arnot2 Comments

traders_still_h_15

  We are all aware of the economic crisis of late and ‘Traders’, written and directed by Rachel Moriarty and Peter Murphy, explores an extreme reaction to this, through two former white-collared bankers facing financial ruin following unemployment. Harry Fox (Killian Scott) was once a lucrative businessman, and has the swanky apartment and attitude that match his previous lifestyle. When he and his co-workers find themselves out of work, Vernon Stynes (John Bradley) thinks he has a solution, presenting the idea of ‘trading’. Trading is when two consenting individuals enter into an agreement whereby their assets are converted to cold hard cash and they fight to the death to either double up or die. The preposterous Fight Club meets The Hunger Games plot is tackled with a very dark sense of humour and unnervingly realistic violence.

Continue reading “DVD review: Traders” →