Can we start with the elephant in the room? Zack Snyder’s Justice League (Zack Snyder, 2021) is a very easy film to ridicule. Indeed, it has endured pretty much every conceivable jab and jest under the sun over the past … Continue reading Zack Snyder’s Justice League // Review
In the ramp-up to the nominee reveals, the Oscars were in a pretty weird position this year. To start with, their list of potential choices had been badly affected by that whole pandemic business; in the broadest sense, any film … Continue reading The Oscar Nominees: Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back
Originally published in print February 2021. The worlds of film and television haven’t always gotten along too well. For the longest time, it was a sign of decline for a bigshot Hollywood actor to take up work on the small … Continue reading “It’s a 22-Hour Movie!” – Cinematic Television in the Streaming Wars
I do believe that there is a place in the media for film criticism. Indeed, I would go so far as to argue that the best film critics are culturally invaluable for their ability to engage the public with informed … Continue reading The Need For Accountability in Film Journalism
●●●●● I feel it is important to preface the following review with one simple, essential thing you need to know about me: I would watch Mads Mikkelsen play just about anything. A sinister gambler with tears of blood? Sure. A … Continue reading Another Round // Review
Early in Mank (David Fincher, 2020), an MGM producer asks “who was that?” as the titular Herman “Mank” Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) waltzes through his set with the know-it-all arrogance of Sherlock Holmes. “Just a writer” is his lackey’s dismissive reply. … Continue reading Mank // Review
Originally published in print September 2020. Over the past decade, there has been a surge in cinematic centrepieces which can be more closely recognised as stadium events than works of art. One of the consequences of this exponential rise in … Continue reading The Art of the Trailer
Illustrations by Lola Fleming and Ciarán Butler. Connor Howlett (Film Editor) The idea behind this Film Club is to pick a film that I think deserves more attention, and set my deputies and another TN2er the homework of watching it. … Continue reading Film Club 3: Emile Ardolino’s Dirty Dancing
●●●○○ There are few Hollywood romances more intimate, indulgent, and prominently advertised than the one between Aaron Sorkin and the sound of his own voice. In any given Sorkin script, rarely will five minutes pass without a winking flourish of … Continue reading The Trial of the Chicago 7 // Review
There are two distinctly different films packed into the eighty-three minute runtime of Saint Maud (Rose Glass, 2019). One is a suffocating psychological drama about the festering, corruptible nature of Christian faith in an isolated mind, while the other seeks … Continue reading Saint Maud // Review
Illustrations by Lola Fleming and Ciarán Butler. Connor Howlett (Film Editor) The idea behind this Film Club is to pick a film that I think deserves more attention, and set my deputies and another TN2er the homework of watching it. They’ll … Continue reading Film Club 2: Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann
Illustrations by Ren O’Hare, Lola Fleming and Ciarán Butler. Originally published in the Summer Issue 2020. Connor Howlett (Film Editor) The idea behind this Film Club is to pick a film that I think deserves more attention, and set my … Continue reading Film Club 1: Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station