Philhelm Scream

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...

The summer I graduated from university I took the opportunity of a bit of downtime to start to work through those films “you need to watch.” There are loads of books and online lists of all of the films you need to see before you die ( one of which I really enjoyed working through recently ), but there are some films that find their way on each. I’m talking about those films where people’s jaws drop to the floor if you were to mention that you haven’t them. “OMG you would LOVE that!… HOW have you never seen that?... You haven’t LIVED until you have watched it,” etc etc. Source That summer I made full use of the LoveFilm offer of a free month’s subscription, and then eventually succumbed to paying for a few more. The idea of renting DVDs online seems dated already but at the time it was a great chance for me to get hold of all of the classic films I wanted to work through. I would have a list of films I ‘needed’ to watch and I would receive one on the doormat every other day...

Source Telling the story of one woman’s immigration to America from Ireland, Brooklyn received Best Picture, Actress and Adapted Screenplay Academy Award nominations, and a standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival. Eilis manages to build contrasting lives in two countries, epitomised by the different men she meets and finds her torn between the two. During awards season we had a running joke that the success of John Crowley’s film was actually down to his namesake, my girlfriend’s dad. I missed the chance to see this when it was initially released but was pleased when I spotted is as I scrawled through Netflix one evening. Source Although the core story to Brooklyn wasn’t massively original, it was told brilliantly well. Right down from its direction and casual pacing to the acting from Saoirse Ronan and her stellar supporting cast. Surrounded by people such as Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Emory Cohen and Domhnall Gleeson, it would have been easy for her to slip i...

Source The psychological thriller/horror is written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, and directed by Karyn Kusama. It stars Logan Marshall-Green as Will, Tammy Blanchard as Eden, and Game of Thrones’ Joe Allen look-a-like Michiel Huisman as David. Will and his girlfriend are invited along with other old friends to the house of his ex-wife and her new husband (Eden and David). Nobody has seen each other for two years since the death of Will and Eden’s son when they were together. As the reasons behind the sudden invite are revealed, and the behaviour of their hosts grows increasingly stranger, Will becomes more and more suspicious of the couple’s motives for having everyone over. Source The Invitation is a film that grabbed my imagination when I first came across the trailer. It looked really creepy, character motives were really vague and unnerving, I could watch it on Netflix, and it had that guy from Game of Thrones in it. It also really reminded me of The Gift (201...

Source During a badly hungover train journey from London back home last weekend I turned to some classic Flight of the Conchords tunes on my iPod to get me through. The New Zealand duo have a back catalogue of parody songs and two HBO television series, and if you haven’t checked them out before then I strongly recommend. When I got home and collapsed on the sofa I began scrolling through Netflix for an easy to watch film to nurse me through the dying embers of my killer headache, and turned to a comedy co-created by one of the pair, Jermaine Clement. He and Taika Waitiki co-wrote, directed and starred in this hilarious horror mockumentary about cameramen granted full access to the house of a Wellington based vampires. What We Do in the Shadows was exactly what I needed. Source I missed the film during it’s original release in cinemas. To my mind it wasn’t out for long, and that was a shame as I was huge fan of Clement’s Flight of the Conchords work in particular. He an...