The expectation that goes with the release of a new Paul Thomas Anderson movie gets bigger and bigger every time. Ever since the acclamations for There Will Be Blood, the director has often found himself being touted (alongside one or two others) as the next heir to Kubrick. And it’s probably […]
Luke Shepherd
Blade Runner 2049 (2017) A visionary homage to a Sci-Fi Classic
When sci-fi fans learned that Blade Runner was to receive the dreaded reboot treatment, the reaction was all too familiar: a cash-in rehashing of an untouchable classic best left to be ignored. With the recent cascade of failed reboots, the hope that Blade Runner could be given a fair hearing […]
Dunkirk – a very loud introduction to war
Leaving the cinema after watching Dunkirk, you’d forgive your brain for thinking that you had just gotten off a rollercoaster. The relentless pace at which the movie depicts the frightening realities of war is as thrilling an experience — if not the biggest thrill — offered by any war movie […]
Magic: The Gathering – The Returning
My first memories of Magic: The Gathering – the most seminal, burgeoning and ubiquitous of Trading Card games – are of walking into my local computer gaming store as an 11-year-old and wondering what all the fuss was at the back. It so happened, it was 1994, when the latest rages were all about […]
Hollywood’s Greatest Underdog
The French film Elle, recently selected for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination, is soon to be released next month in America, bringing the name Verhoeven back into the limelight — although, perhaps not in the way that we might expect. Paul Verhoeven elicits controversy. His films are rarely without contention, […]