Author: Gary Green

Unabashed lover of Pitch Perfect. Also freelance film critic.

Jared Leto joins Blade Runner sequel – and we’re not angry about it

Jared Leto has gotten his share of bad publicity in the past year: stories from the set of Suicide Squad about his method shenanigans, plus the mixed reception of his take on the character of the Joker in the eventually released cut of the movie, plus the negativity toward his opinion that he was ‘tricked‘ into doing Suicide Squad in the first place. And now it’s been announced that Leto has been cast in Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming Blade Runner sequel.

Cocoon – Review

For the USA, Ron Howard is a national treasure. For the rest of the world, he’s an absolute crowd-pleaser: films like Splash have marked him out as a master of light entertainment, while Apollo 13 had the awards klaxon calling. This success has been thanks in no small part to his level of filmmaking craft, and a sensibility for creating images that linger in pop culture. Like his contemporary Robert Zemeckis, he can take a familiar subject and breathe fresh perspective into it. In Cocoon, the question of old age is given a supernatural spin – but the 1985 film film simply lacks the storytelling chops to lift it to the classic heights it needs.

The Hard Stop – Review

There are always two sides to one story, but in the case of Mark Duggan’s death at the hands of police in 2011, the story is downright multi-faceted. The event triggered the London riots that same year, reflecting a portion of the country that was at once voiceless and furious. The question of lawfulness concerning Duggan’s shooting has reverberated through black communities since, and with the consistent senselessness America is currently going through, it’s a wound that feels as sore as ever. You may already have a stance on the subject, and no matter what that perspective is, George Amponsah’s The Hard Stop is essential viewing.

Does a new Assassin’s Creed image spoil a possible plot development?

We all like it when marketing for movies gets us excited, while at the same time keeping the important secrets – well, as secrets. That’s why trailers for Christopher Nolan films work so well, but perhaps the team behind promotional materials for the Assassin’s Creed adaptation could learn a thing or two from him. A couple new images were tweeted from the film’s official Twitter account, and while one doesn’t reveal much, the other may – or may not – have just spoiled a plot development.

https://twitter.com/assassinscreed/status/751143847779008512

Weiner – Review

Weiner is an unfortunate name. For the politician who owns it, he’s had an even more unfortunate life; a while after Anthony Weiner first came to prominence thanks to a video of him heatedly tackling his GOP colleagues in 2010, in a wincingly poetic sweep of irony, a photo of his own Anthony W. leaked and also went viral. His political career potentially in tatters, he didn’t let the sex scandal prove to be a setback for him; he and his wife Huma Abedin, herself an advisor to Hillary Clinton, and perhaps the most miraculously forgiving woman in history, teamed together for Anthony to run for mayor of New York.

The Lego Movie sequel will get a rewrite from Bojack Horseman’s creator – and that’s a good thing

There’s a good chance The Lego Movie was one of your favourite films of recent years: full of belly laughs and driven by disarmingly moving themes, it was one of those projects that just should never have been anywhere near as good as it turned out. Of course, Warner Bros. are now turning out multiple movies and spin-offs, including The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie – but chief among them is the film’s direct sequel. Of course, original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller are a little busy with the Han Solo standalone Star Wars flick, so Community alumni Rob Schrab is stepping up – and according to Variety, joining him to do a rewrite on the script will be Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the creator of Bojack Horseman.

Notes on Blindness – Review

Blindness, like Pete Middleton and James Spinney’s new film describes, is a world of its own. Keeping one’s eyes closed isn’t nearly enough to get inside the mind of someone whose sight has left them entirely, for the taking away of one sense is only a part of it. For theologian John Hull, blindness was like entering a new landscape, both eerily familiar and frighteningly alien, but by recording his experiences of losing his sight on reams upon reams of cassette tape, he worked toward understanding his condition so it would never consume him. Released a year after his death, Notes on Blindness not only draws from these recordings but ingeniously builds the entire movie around them; the result is a quietly profound peek inside an alternate universe of sensation, and how its sole occupant navigates everyday life, and above all, strengthens himself on the extraordinary power of family.

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