Black Swan

Recommending this film is not the easiest thing to do. You have those who already know and appreciate the prospect of a new Darren Aronofsky film, granted some of those fans fell off at The Fountain, his most personal and ambitious work, before being pulled back in by The Wrestler.

Then you have those yet to be convinced.

Amazon just bought LoveFilm

Conviction

Conviction is a sickly and cynical bit of force-fed fluff, masquerading as serious drama as it squeezes all life out of its once-dignified story, dragging it through the shit heap of Hollywood to exploit its working-class subjects with predictable execution. Not the first, and not the last time this will happen.

Blue Valentine

If you’ve happened upon any of the interviews with director and co-writer Derek Cianfrance talking about his 12-year project, Blue Valentine, you’ll notice there’s a through-line to all of them. As wearied as his two main characters become of each other, Cianfrance, in his routine exchanges with the press, generally refers to his film as a ‘duet’. Probably because that’s the perfect way to describe it.

127 Hours [Film]

In Our Name

Somewhere

Salon Des Refusés

Films opening today in London - 19 November 2010

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

The beginning of the end is upon us with the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 today. Like an overflowing cauldron of polyjuice potion, it can’t possibly all be consumed in one go, so it has been kindly chopped up into two bite-sized chunks for us meaning all those eager to see what becomes of the magical threesome must fork out twice. Well, if I were Warner Bros, standing on Platform 9 and three-quarters, tearfully waving off the highest grossing film franchise of all time, I’d probably squeeze every last drop of profit out too.