Because Everybody Else Has One

That exclamation mark is definitely earned. Even by their standards, the Coen Brothers' latest comedy is an extremely ramshackle, structureless affair, but is precisely this restlessness that gives Hail, Caesar! much of its sparkiness. Effectively a love letter to post-War Hollywood (as opposed to the troubling depiction of the same period in Trumbo), the film flits from the film's main star and grounding force, Josh Brolin, a studio man confronted with the chance to leave the madnes behind for a much cushier job in the arms business, to what are basically small, extremely funny vignettes of the Hollywood machine running at full steam. The all-star supporting cast are largely relegated to, at best, extended cameos but they're all utterly brilliant in however long their screen time happens to be, as the Coens once again get only the best comedic performances from their actors. Similarly, just because the film's plot is extremely loose and it seem sto be mostly a co...

Pardon me if this feels slightly more like a book report than your typical review. It's just that kind of movie. This review is also up, in slightly altered form, at Channel 24 What it's about After being arrested for trying to sabotage the dismantling of a NASA base, Casey Newton, a passionately idealistic and fiercely intelligent young woman, finds a mysterious pin from the 1964 World Trade Fair in her belongings; a pin that alerts her to the existence of a far happier future than the one towards which our world is heading. As the mystery of the strange pin deepens, Casey soon finds herself teaming up with a former boy genius, Frank Walker, to save the world from an apocalyptic fate. What we thought Despite a few iffy reviews from the American press, Tomorrowland: A World Beyond has plenty going for it. Its terrifically retro-futuristic art design, its likeable characters, its very solid cast and the fact that it's a creative genre film that is nethe...

I have a bunch of Channel 24 reviews for this week, but before I post them, I just want to say a quick few words about one of the year's most notable, often awe-inspiring releases, Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity. Gravity, the latest film from the frankly brilliant Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men, Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban and Y Tu Mama Tambien) must have the highest Metascore  of any film released this year at a whopping 96/100 and, ya know what, it very almost deserves the dozens of 5 star reviews it has so far received. As a technical piece of filmmaking it is, indeed, flawless as its special effects are entirely believable, its visuals glorious and its use of 3D right up there with Hugo and Life of Pi. It is also, a white-knuckle thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat, if not hyperventilating, throughout  its sleek 90 minutes of catastrophic space adventure. And then, of course, there is the career-best performance by Sandra Bullock who very al...

Just a couple of quick reviews before I get to my overview of the films of 2011. One from this week and one that came out a few weeks ago that I've managed to miss until very recently. Moneyball isn't just a drama about baseball; it's a drama about the statistics behind baseball. Needless to say, this is not a subject with what anyone would call "universal appeal" but, for the 6.99999 billion of you who have no interest in baseball or statistics, Moneyball still has plenty on offer. Brad Pitt stars as a former ball player turned manager of a relatively minor baseball team who, after meeting a young Yale economics graduate with a formula that could forever change the way major league baseball is played, is confronted with an opportunity to leave a greater mark on the game than he could ever previously have imagined. That's right: however much Moneyball may seem to be about baseball on the surface, dig just a little bit deeper and you'll find the st...