Philhelm Scream

Source As build up towards the release of Christopher Nolan’s 10th full feature increased, there were a lot of lists flying around the twitterverse - In what order of preference do you put Nolan’s films?  It’s an extremely difficult question to answer.  Nolan’s a director whose films can reach out to a very wide audience.  If you’re after spectacle and story then you tend to have both in abundance, but if you’re keen to delve deeper and be challenged, then Nolan’s happy to give the brain a workout too.  He’s right up there for me, and I think I have always appreciated his love of film and respect of the craft.  He will use practical effects over CGI wherever possible (go and find a clip of Joseph Gordon-Levitt jumping round that spinning Inception corridor now), and hates 3D, believing instead in the traditional and more immersive (in my opinion) experience of projecting a film on the biggest screen possible.  Due to the additional cost, we only tend to...

Source As with much of my education, I have The Simpsons to thanks for introducing me to Planet of the Apes (see also, The Shining, Rear Window, 2001: a Space Odyssey, and The Fugitive).   In the episode ‘A Fish Called Selma’, Troy McClure attempts to resurrect his acting career by marrying Selma Boucier and starring in ‘Stop the Planet of the Apes.  I Want to Get Off!’, singing his way through a stage musical interpretation of the sci-fi classic.  From ‘Dr. Zaius’ to ‘You Finally Made a Monkey Out of Me’ via break-dancing  apes, it’s absolute genius. And now that will be stuck in my head for the rest of the day. It’s a brilliant spoof, but did mean that I wasn’t all that shocked when it came to the twist at the end of the 1968 film itself.  It’s a twist that so many people are aware of (not least because its plastered across the front of the DVD case!) that its easy to forget just how brilliant and shocking it must have been upon release.  That C...

Source Trey Edward Shults directs, in what was a highly anticipated psychological cabin fever horror film, It Comes at Night.  Despite quite positive critical reaction, the film has struggled to get that same response from the paying public.  The film opens in a secluded wooden house deep in the middle of a thick forest.  The house is occupied by a small family who appear to know about as much about what is going on outside of that wood as we do: there is a virus that has killed a lot of people, there is only one blood red door in and out of the house, and only one key for it.  They’re suddenly faced with the arrival of an outsider, and contrasting choices: cautiousness, compassion, and ultimately, survival.  Not knowing the whole picture is extremely unnerving, but it’s also not necessary seeing as the film is really about humans.  Why muddle that with the numbers of those that have died, or the genetic makeup of a virus when it can focus in on a few ...

As is now a famous Philhelm Scream tradition (ie. I’ve done it once before, last year ), approaching the half-way point of the calendar year feels a suitable time to take stock and rank some films. After what was an incredible strong Oscar year, there’s a good showing of the nominees here seeing as each received a January release here in the UK. Fingers crossed July – Dec is just as good! 1 0. Hidden Figures I thought it was a bit of a shame Hidden Figures (along with 2016's Hell or High Water) slipped under the best Picture radar a bit this year, while the incredibly dull Lion (2017) and Dev Patel’s hair seemed to get a lot more coverage. The story of the first ever black female employee at NASA, and the struggles she faced to get there was told really well. It’s a proper fist pump of a story, and doesn’t get too bogged down in the boring number crunching that it could so easily have done. The leading trio of Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monáe and Octavia Spencer are each bri...

Source Shaun of the Dead (2004) is somehow one of my favourite ever comedies, as well as making it on to  my list of favourite ever horror films .  Hot Fuzz (2007) is brilliantly funny too (always thought it would make a great cinema double bill with Bigelow's Point Break, the 1991 thriller from which it took a lot of inspiration), but I don’t remember reacting to The World’s End (2013) in anyway near the same way.  While the first two in Wright’s ‘Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy’ heavily referenced films I knew very well to comedic effect, I remember thinking that I would find The World’s End funnier when I’m older… so its terrifying to think that soon may be the time to give that another go.  I'm a huge fan of Edgar Wright’s snappy style and cuts, and there’s actually a great analysis of his visual comedy which I recommend checking out here .  After he backed out of doing Marvel's Ant-Man in 2015, the release of Baby Driver crept up on me a bit this year. ...

Source A documentary’s place is often on the small screen where it has the time to carry out it’s investigation in full across a few episodes. Making a Murderer was a great example of that – there wasn’t anything visually grand about the series that was missed having it on my small screen, and it’s run time allowed it to delve deep in to the detail, rather than cramming it all in to 2 hours.   Despite the tendency to find them more on TV, there is a growing trend in documentaries made for the big screen now. What was once an ignored platform is finding an ever growing audience. That’s reflected in my admittedly blinkered list of all time faves, seeing as only one was made outside of the last 10 years. Attention for film docs is getting bigger and bigger, and some of my favourite experiences in a cinema have been sitting through some of the films below. It isn’t often that audiences will challenge what’s being presented to them when it’s got that ‘documentary’ label, but t...

Source You may have heard this already, but Wonder Woman is a bit good.  I've grown pretty tired of the superhero formula and constant revolving door of money machine films in similar packaging, but was really impressed with the freshness of Deadpool (2016) and in particular, Logan   (2017) .   One of my favourite YouTube subscriptions , Nerdwriter , analysed this evolution of the superhero genre in his most recent video and put it much better than I ever could - suddenly, it's an interesting time to be making a superhero movie again. Source Saying that, until the positive reviews began to stream in I was approaching the release of Wonder Woman with a fair bit of trepidation.   DC film have obviously been really disappointing, drab affairs of late.  Although I caught Man of Steel (2013) and Suicide Squad (2016), I'll admit that it's negative reception put me off sitting through over 3 hours of Batman vs Superman.  It's a shame as although Man o...