Given director Guillermo del Toro’s catalogue of ornate gothic horror movies, it seems a film about a carnival freak show would be a career imperative. His latest movie, the confrontingly dark and creepy noir crime thriller, Nightmare Alley – which is a remake of the Edmund Goulding 1947 film – explores this unsettling and often sad world. Bradley Cooper stars
Read moreDirected by Bradley Cooper and starring Cooper and Lady Gaga, this fourth film version of A Star is Born is an effectively raw if at times cliched take on what is both a doomed romance and cautionary tale about the price of fame. Cooper plays old school rock star Jackson Maine, a prodigiously talented singer/ song writer but also an
Read moreThe first Guardians of the Galaxy film caused a minor sensation as it broke from the Marvel formula for a wildly different superhero experience. That film unusually but successfully combined elaborate often spectacular special effects, thrilling action sequences, vivid art direction, piss-taking humour and Gen X pop-cultural references including classic 1970’s power pop hits. With the sequel, writer/ director James
Read moreTime once again to enter the wonderfully off-kilter but seeringly insightful alternate reality of David O Russell’s films. His two previous offerings Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle were an intoxicating mix of comedy, drama and romance that provided some of the best cinema entertainment of recent years. With those films Russell established an ensemble of actors including Robert de
Read moreBurnt is a clichéd story of redemption where a troubled (alleged) genius – in this case a chef – who has squandered his talent through a self-destructive lifestyle of booze, drugs and one night stands, has a second chance at success. Bradley Cooper plays two Michelin star chef Adam Jones who, after a disastrous drug-induced meltdown in Paris, tries to
Read moreAmerican Hustle is an intoxicating mix of 1970’s nostalgia, slow-burn crime drama and comedy that probes themes of deception and identity and constantly asks the question “who’s playing who?” American Hustle is, along with Silver Linings Playbook director David O. Russell’s second film of 2013 and together they reassert him as one of American cinema’s most important contemporary auteurs. Set
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