On 11 August, City Connect celebrates the birthday of Australian actor Chris Hemsworth who was born on this day in 1983. Chris Hemsworth first became known for his role as [...]
Author Archive for Eric Wood
Eric Wood is 21 years old, from Bury in Greater Manchester, and a graduate of Salford University where he studied Journalism and English Literature. His first novel comes out later in the year, and he begins work directing his first feature length movie in the summer. Eric absolutely adores all forms of writing and loves movies so he’s the ideal film critic. His greatest inspiration for many years has been Michael Crichton, as Crichton has written novels, non-fiction, screenplays, and directed movies. Eric would love to be able to achieve all of those things in my lifetime.
Film Review: Bernie
There are times when it just works. There are times when the soufflé rises just right. Sometimes it’s explainable, but if we’re being honest, it’s best when it happens miraculously. That’s how I felt when I watched “Bernie.” It’s difficult to describe – as a complete work – what it is that makes it such [...]
Film Review: The Look Of Love
Whilst watching “The Look Of Love,” it’s hard not to think that it would be better suited for a Sunday night on BBC Four than a Friday night at your local cinema. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with it; it’s solidly made by people who know how the game is played, and has moments of humour [...]
Film Review: Spring Breakers
“Spring Breakers” is the best film Harmony Korine has ever made, but that’s not really a compliment. Up until now Korine’s films have been nothing more than self-indulgent and overly self-conscious tripe. However, with his first feature film since “Trash Humpers” in 2009, he seems to be a changed man. Is that for better? Moderately, [...]
Film Review: Trance
“Trance” is a film about a man having fun. It’s not one of the characters though. It’s not even one of the three main cast members, who are clearly enjoying being part of a quick-moving puzzle. It’s the director, Danny Boyle. He gets everything he wants; the stylish music video-like visuals, the pumping soundtrack, the [...]
Roger Ebert: In Memoriam
I first became aware of Roger Ebert when I was 17. I was studying film studies at college, and was required to do a presentation on a particular director or genre. I chose to do my presentation on Steven Spielberg. Given that it was to be my first time speaking alone in front of an [...]
Film Review: Parker
Donald E. Westalke’s anti hero Parker has never found a suitable film avatar. Mel Gibson perhaps came close to hitting the nail on the head in “Payback”, but it just didn’t feel like the professional criminal who featured in over 20 novels. Now, Jason Statham has stepped up for the role, and it’s possible that [...]
Film Review: Side Effects
In 1989 Steven Soderbergh made his début with “Sex, Lies, and Videotape.” He took the film to the Cannes Film Festival for what turned out to be one of the most stressful experiences of his life. It was a time when independent films didn’t garner much respect, and he was having a very hard time [...]
Film Review: Side by Side
Side by Side is an impressive documentary that brings a crucial and fiery debate to the screen. The subject: is celluloid being replaced by digital film making? With front-man and narrator Keanu Reeves, director Christopher Kenneally picks the brains of some of the most influential and respected Hollywood members, from directors, to writers, to technicians. [...]
Film Review: To The Wonder
One hundred and twelve minutes. That’s how long it takes for To The Wonder to pass before your eyes. That’s how long it takes to watch Olga Kurylenko prance around in a field like she’s not getting enough iron in her diet. One hundred and twelve minutes of listening to Javier Bardem’s monotonous voiceover. “Christ [...]
Film Review: Hitchcock
“Hitchcock” is an uneven film that has a few comically pleasing moments, but ultimately comes across as shallow. Anthony Hopkins is the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock, a man who has become a mythical creature just as much as he’s become a directorial legend. In this instance, he’s an insecure general, who leers at his [...]
Film Review: Warm Bodies
Despite the explosion of the zombie genre in the last decade, the undead themselves have become predictable one trick ponies. They stumble around. They drool. They’re most commonly very stupid. They hunger for human brains. And eventually, they’re killed off with a bloody gunshot to the head. It’s almost impossible to put a new spin [...]
Film Review: Lincoln
“Lincoln” is an unexpected triumph. You expect it to be a talky biopic, that as a consequence is dry and dusty. It is talky, but it’s also thrilling. This is down to the precise vision of Steven Spielberg, who gives the story wonderful coherence. He doesn’t need to be loud and flashy; he’s making a [...]
Film Review: The Sessions
The Sessions is an alarming film, but not for the reasons it’s plot suggests. It’s not because of graphic, steamy sex scenes, or the fact that Helen Hunt bravely bares all to the camera. It’s because it handles the sexual nature of the story with tenderness and maturity. It rights all the wrongs left behind [...]
Film Review: Quartet
Quartet has become the surprising tool of political debate in the United Kingdom over the past month. Because of recent events that are really too dull to get into, the status of the senior members of our society has been put under the political microscope, and Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut is being used to illustrate [...]
Film Review: Grabbers
If Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths) ever wrote a horror film, it would be exactly like Grabbers. Almost like an Irish Shaun of the Dead mixed in with an invading monster of the Roger Corman tradition, Jon Wright’s second film is wonderfully silly and is very aware of it. For people who are sick [...]
Film Review: Seven Psychopaths
Seven Psychopaths is a unique cinema experience to say the least. To put it bluntly, it’s as crazy as a squirrel trapped in a pedal bin. Much like Shane Black’s wonderful Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, it’s a chaotic film that’s very self aware. It knows it’s a movie, and so exploits that from start to [...]
Film Review: Gambit
The Coen Brothers’ script for Gambit had been floating around Hollywood for about ten years before it went into production. That’s roughly how long it took Christopher Nolan to write his terrific mind bending heist movie Inception. If the Coen Brothers had decided to spend those ten years rewriting it, Gambit would still probably be [...]
Ten Films To Look Forward To In 2013
2013 looks set to be another year when sequels and comic book movies dominate the box office. Shane Black is taking the director’s chair for Iron Man 3, which judging from the sneak peeks we’ve been given this year, looks set to be much darker than the first two instalments. Thor will also be returning [...]
The 10 Best and Worst Movies of 2012
I know film critics say this every December, but it’s true; this has been a great year for movies. Yes, there have been a few bumps along the way (ten of them are featured below) but for the most part, this year’s cinema experiences have been spectacular. We’ve had a summer of superhero blockbusters taking [...]
Film Review: Trouble with the Curve
Trouble with the Curve is the ultimate anti-Moneyball movie. Many members of the baseball community in the US, most of them relatively old, still have difficulty accepting that their game can be won by someone who’s good at maths. Trouble with the Curve is a celebration of those old scouts you saw battling against Brad [...]
Film Review: End Of Watch
You really should turn your nose up at End of Watch, but you can’t help but be captivated by it. It’s made up of pretty much every cop movie cliché going, and you’ve seen the plot more than a few times before. And yet, the bits that seem like they’ve been cut and pasted from [...]
Film Review: Silver Linings Playbook
It’s never very easy to tell what direction director David O. Russell will go in. He went from the superbly intelligent Three Kings to the more bewildering and uneven I Heart Huckabees in 2004. He didn’t turn up again until 2010 with the Oscar nominated film The Fighter. It was supposed to signal a return [...]
Film Review: The Master
There are few directors that make mesmerising films about absolutely nothing like Paul Thomas Anderson. It’s for this reason that it’s very difficult to describe exactly what The Master it’s about. But at the same time, there are no hidden meanings. There’s nothing to “get”. Everything is laid out for the audience to interpret. It’s [...]
Film Review: Amour
2012 has seen quite a few directors leave their comfort zone to try something new, and quite a lot of the time it has paid off. David Cronenberg left behind his body horror traditions to make the brilliantly cerebral Cosmopolis. Ben Affleck set his third film outside of Boston for the first time with Argo. [...]
Film Review: Argo
Argo is one of those true stories that are so bizarre and farcical that it must be real. Earlier in the year it was a similar story with the chilling documentary The Imposter, about a young French boy who was able to impersonate a missing American child. It’s a strange thing, but because it is [...]
Film Review: Rust and Bone
Rust and Bone is a melodrama, but this by no means should put you off seeing it. Yes, it does have a plot you would expect to find at three o’clock in the afternoon on Channel 5, but it’s handled in a way that makes it feel like something so much more. This is in [...]
Ask City Connect
How to Fix a Fashion-Challenged Boyfriend
Adrian Fernand – Australia’s seriously stylish agony uncle and creator of idobelieveicamewithahat.com – answers your questions on life, the universe and everything. This week, Adrian has advice on how to [...]
Style
First Class Cuppa
The Stamp Collection is the chic creation of Gift Republic, a multi award-winning gift company who produce mugs bearing designs using iconic Royal Mail stamps. This is the ideal gift [...]
Relationships
William and Kate – Will They Last?
Well a question no doubt on everyone’s lips is whether Wills and Kate are destined to be together. Many people wonder whether the temporary split is still a niggle between them or whether it is [...]
