cinema

Film review: Idiots

Since his on-screen breakthrough as the hapless protagonist in Jeremy Saulnier’s 2013 thriller Blue Ruin, filmmaker Macon Blair has proven himself as something of an all-rounder of indie cinema. Across acting, producing, writing, and directing, his low-budget oeuvre is often laced with a dark streak of humour and he has leaned further into comedy for his latest effort. Previously titled Shitheads until some reluctance from their distributors to promote the film, Idiots follows Davis (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) and Mark (Dave Franco) as two recently unemployed down-and-outs who pair up for a job at a transport agency. Assigned the seemingly simple task of escorting privileged teen tearaway Sheridan (Mason Thames) to a rehab clinic, a series of encounters lead to crime and chaos along the way.

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DVD & Digital

DVD review: Nerve

nerve
 In the swinging sixties, pop artist Andy Warhol said that “in the future, everyone would be world-famous for 15 minutes” and thanks to a social-media obsessed 21st century internet generation, he may well have been onto something. The idea of brittle celebrity status is explored in techno-thriller Nerve, directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. Based on Jeanne Ryan’s 2012 young adult novel of the same name, the plot follows Vee (Emma Roberts), a timid teenager who lives in the shadow of her popular best friend Sydney (Emily Meade) who urges her to be more outgoing. In an uncharacteristic attempt to be noticed, she signs up as a ‘player’ to Nerve; an online game in which you complete dares for money and get a hoard of ‘watchers’ in the process. This leads her to meet Ian (Dave Franco) and the pair embark on an adventure that begins as an exciting thrill-ride, but soon takes a dangerous dark turn.

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