Review: See How They Run

After immersing yourself in the light pastels, jaunty music and Adrian Brody voiceover of the opening scene, coupled with the introduction of Saoirse Ronan, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d just walked into a Wes Anderson film. However, viewer, you’ve actually tumbled into the debut film of Tom George, who has replaced rural countryside of his acclaimed BBC Three sitcom This Country with the urban landscape of 1950s London.

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Minimalist Moments: First Man

First Man has its faire share of explosions and loud soundscapes, as you’d expect from any film depicting the space race. If you have numerous rocket launches on film, you need sound to create that cinematic realism, and lots of it. The opening scene depicting Ryan Gosling’s Neil Armstrong as he completes his journey in the X-15 aircraft sets us up for an action-orientated adventure of booms and blasts. 

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The Lorax at 10: A Meme Film

What is a meme film, you ask? You remember that image of Nicolas Cage meme, right? The one where he’s got crazy huge eyes, exaggerated eyebrows and a general super sarcastic facial expression? You probably know it. However, do you know what film it’s from? Probably not (it’s from Vampire’s Kiss, if you’re interested. If you’re not, that’s cool). One of the most entertaining elements of memes is their frequent lack of context, allowing the meme creator to put a wide range of text on that static image.

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Review: Three Thousand Years of Longing

At this point in George Miller’s eclectic career, the idea of a film revolving around a woman swapping tales with an oversized, elemental spirit over cups of tea is pretty standard. The trailer’s proud announcement that the film derives from Miller’s ‘mad genius’ should be a subtle hint. Bear in mind this is the man who, before his most recent, revered Mad Max: Fury Road, directed tales about a talking penguin trying to find his place in his pack through interpretative dance (Happy Feet) and a talking pig attempting to make its way through the urban landscape, where he finds a bubble gum-blowing monkey, a bunch of gangster dogs, singing mice, a kitten with stomach problems and a fish doing a low-brow Dustin Hoffman impression from Midnight Cowboy(Babe: Pig in the City). These are just a few things I gleaned from the trailer; I can’t claim to have seen this piggy masterpiece yet.

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