With his latest film, Personal Shopper writer/director Olivier Assayas uses the supernatural horror medium as a way of externalising his lead character’s anxieties. This makes for an occasionally perplexing film but also an intriguing and genuinely spooky one. Kristen Stewart is Maureen, the eponymous shopper who works as a personal assistant to famous French fashion designer, Kyra (Nora von Waldstätten).
Read moreAfter the original Lego Movie became a box office behemoth there was no escaping a future filled with animated Lego figures spouting sarcastic quips. Now we have The Lego Batman Movie a cluttered, manic film stuffed with mostly superficial pop-cultural references that, while sporadically amusing, fails to live up to its predecessor. Here, Batman (voiced by Will Arnett) is having
Read moreGhost In The Shell is an adaptation of a popular Japanese graphic novel although it looks like it was spliced together from the DNA of Blade Runner and RoboCop with a dash of The Matrix. Like those films, Ghost in the Shell is set within a futuristic dystopia in which people have literally been submerged in questionable technology. Within this
Read moreThe first two Alien films were so iconic that any sequels or prequels will inevitably carry a burden of expectation so weighty that even Dwayne ‘the rock’ Johnson would struggle to lift it. This partly accounts for the disappointment that will gnaw at your guts like the infamous title creature while watching the latest instalment in the franchise, Alien: Covenant
Read moreCate Shortland’s latest film, Berlin Syndrome may have young travellers reconsidering that planned European backpacking holiday. Here, Teresa Palmer plays Clare, a troubled and reserved young Australian woman backpacking in Berlin. After spending a night with a seemingly nice young German teacher, Andi (Max Riemelt) at his isolated apartment, she awakes the next morning to find he has locked her
Read moreDenial begins with a familiar caption ‘based on a true story’ but it’s more pertinent here than in most other films as Denial recounts a legal case in which truth and historical fact were out on trial. The film concerns the liable case brought against American history professor Deborah Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz) and her publishers Penguin Books by British author
Read more