Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
Goosebumps has no right to be good. Based on the works of R.L. Stine, it should be a soulless cash grab. However, with the helpful hand of Rob Letterman in control and Jack Black playing the role of Mr Stine himself it has somehow come to be, as a Joe Dante-inspired family horror film, as likely to make you laugh as it is to make you jump.
Hollywood self-reflection is always a bit strange.  When the vapidest of places turns the camera on itself, you never quite know what to expect.  So a film detailing the period where they turned so anti-communist that they created the infamous blacklist (which prevented communists from working) and even had several prominent communists chucked in jail, is even stranger.  But that is where Trumbo takes us.  With, unsurprisingly, particular focus on Dalton Trumbo, the writer of films like Roman Holiday and Spartacus and one of the biggest critics of said list.
The Assassin has established itself as a bit of a critical darling.  Sight & Sound went as far as naming it their film of 2015, which was a strange move for a British magazine since it had its commercial release this year in the UK.  Yet that confidence boost obviously didn’t satisfy the marketing department as they made the decision to advertise it to UK audiences as a wuxia film while in reality it only bears slight resemblances to that genre.  It is a combination that leaves you wondering whether this is going to be yet another example of a film beloved by critics, but not the general public.
Youth is one of those films which makes me glad that I don’t assign star ratings to my reviews.  On one hand I think Paolo Sorrentino’s film is a pretentious and pervy look at old age.  On the other, it’s a touching tale of old friends and their relationship.  So how do you get that across in stars?
Depicting journalism on screen is a tricky task.  The truth is that it is rarely clandestine meetings with mysterious sources but is more often simple, long and boring fact-checking followed by bursts of excitement when a big story comes along.  It’s this that Spotlight aims to capture.  The tale of the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team’s investigation into the Catholic Church Abuse Scandal is lacking huge set pieces and dramatic gestures and instead features plain old journalism, but still manages to be gripping from start to finish.
Forty years ago Sly Stallone was nominated for an Oscar for playing the role of Rocky Balboa.  At that point, you would have been insane if you’d chosen to bet on him getting a nomination for the same role in 2016.  Here we are, though, and not only has Creed allowed Sly to rediscover his mojo, but it may have dragged the Rocky franchise back from the brink.
If someone was to sit you down and request you write a list of directors whom you believed would be likely to direct a film on the 2008 financial crash, how many would you get through before you got to Adam McKay?  The man who created Ron Burgundy may have included a small lecture at the end of The Other Guys about said financial crash, but he would still have been far down most people’s lists.  And yet, here we sit.  The Big Short not only exists but has five Oscar nominations, including Best Director for McKay.  So how did he pull it off?
The Revenant’s gruelling shoot is already crossing over into Hollywood myth and legend. Â It endured everything from freezing temperatures to an unusual lack of snow in Canada and saw more than one crew member either walk off the set or be fired. Â All to bring us the story of Hugh Glass, (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is buried alive and left for dead by his fellow trappers after he is attacked by a grizzly bear. Â Somehow he survives to pull himself out of his grave and give chase, seeking revenge on those that have wronged him. Â So the question is, was it all worth it?
There are minor spoilers for Room in this review, although they are all revealed in the trailer. Â If you want to know nothing, you should probably stop here. Â It’s brilliant, go see it.
To call Room harrowing is the mother of all understatements.  At the start of the film, we find Brie Larson’s Ma living in a garden shed barely bigger than a closet, imprisoned by ‘Old Nick’ who kidnapped her seven years previously.  In that time, she has grown to be dependent on him and has also had his child, Jack, who is now five years old.  Despite the circumstances of his birth, she has grown fiercely protective of him, letting Nick nowhere near him and raising him best she can in their horrifying circumstances.
The Danish Girl marks the second year in a row that Eddie Redmayne has been caught up in all that award’s business due to a transformative performance.  While last year’s Theory of Everything saw him playing Stephen Hawking, The Danish Girl has him step into the life of Einar Wegener, who went on to be known as Lili, after she became the first person to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
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