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cinema

Film review: The Super Mario Bros. Movie

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After many years of poorly received efforts, we’re finally in a boom period of video game adaptations with the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog, Tetris, and the television version of The Last of Us achieving success and critical acclaim. Following a notorious live-action outing in 1993, the iconic platform-game plumber makes his animated cinema debut in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic. As the brothers attempt to get their family business off the ground in Brooklyn, they are sucked through a mysterious green pipe and land in separate new worlds. Mario (Chris Pratt) soon befriends Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) and asks Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) for help. Meanwhile, Luigi (Charlie Day) is stuck in the Dark Lands where Koopa king Bowser (Jack Black) hatches his latest evil plan. 

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DVD & Digital

DVD review: The Northman

Garry Arnot2 Comments

Following on from the acclaim of his offbeat efforts The Witch and The Lighthouse, writer and director Robert Eggers returns on an epic scale with a big budget for his third feature The Northman. Based upon the same medieval Scandi legend that inspired Shakespeare to write Hamlet, this historical blockbuster tells the tale of Prince Amleth, played with an animalistic heft by a bulked-up Alexander Skarsgård. When King Aurvandill (Ethan Hawke) is brutally murdered by his brother (Claes Bang), who then proceeds to kidnap Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman), it sets up a Viking revenge saga as the protagonist vows to avenge his father, save his mother, and to kill his uncle Fjölnir.

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DVD & Digital

DVD review: Here Are The Young Men

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 Based upon Rob Doyle’s novel of the same name, model turned actor and filmmaker Eoin Macken writes and directs coming-of-age drama Here Are the Young Men. Set during the Celtic Tiger period of Ireland’s economic boom, the story treads the well-worn territory of a group of teenage friends having their last hurrah summer before entering the real world. Matthew (Dean Charles-Chapman) is the naïve and impressionable protagonist, led astray by Rez (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) and Kearney (Finn Cole) who have an insatiable appetite for drug-fuelled rebellion. As his relationship with Jen (Anya Taylor-Joy) begins to blossom, Matthew is forced to reckon with his increasingly reckless behaviour.

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DVD & Digital

DVD review: Thoroughbreds

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thoroughbreds

Playwright Cory Finley introduces himself to the cinematic landscape with his directorial debut Thoroughbreds, a Sundance-indie-comedy with a sinister neo-noir streak. Olivia Cooke portrays Amanda, a troubled teen that struggles to convey compassion and empathy. Because her issues keep her out of the public schooling system, she reunites with childhood friend Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) who reluctantly agrees offer private tutoring. Though their personalities clash initially, they soon strike up an unusual friendship, and together they hatch a murderous plan.

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