You know, if it wasn’t for the gigantic sea monster stomping its way through New York City, I can’t imagine it being terribly difficult convincing someone that Cloverfield is a real home video. That’s what I love about found-footage films; they lend credibility to the incredible, creating an illusion of reality that is far more immersive than that of a conventional film.

Well, that’s the idea anyway. Sometimes they end up [...]

In Room 514, a young, idealistic military investigator tries to get to the bottom of alleged abuses of Palestinian civilians by a decorated Israeli commander. A minimalist low-budget drama set largely in the eponymous interrogation room, the picture is earnest in its attempts to explore the difficult issues it raises, and is at times compelling in its storytelling. But the ugly camera-work and unpolished script are such a constant hindrance, [...]

Boy meets horse. Boy looses horse. Boy gets horse. It’s the classic formula for a Hollywood love story – albeit with a slightly equestrian twist –and also the plot of War Horse, the latest film from director Steven Spielberg (Tintin), based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo and the award-winning stage production by Nick Stafford. The story follows a horse, named Joey, in a war, named The Great War, [...]

In Rodrigo Garcia’s Albert Nobbs, Glenn Close (The Stepford Wives) stars as a buttoned down manservant working in a posh Dublin hotel who lives in constant fear of losing his livelihood due to the secret fact that he is actually a woman. A fascinating premise for a period film one might think, but alas what could have been an off-kilter examination of the social and sexual hang-ups of 19^th century [...]

Based on the timeless Belgian comics by Hergé, directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings) and brought to life using the same motion capture technology popularized by Robert Zemeckis (The Polar Express) and perfected by James Cameron (Avatar), The Adventures of Tintin bears, in theory, all the promise of a cinematic event. Not so in execution. Part gumshoe mystery, part animated Indiana Jones, [...]

A fantastic sci-fi horror film brimming with suspense and packed with elaborate special effects, The Thing is an example of genre filmmaking at its finest, while also standing out as one of the few examples of a remake that actually improves upon the earlier film. Unfortunately, I am referring to John Carpenter’s 1982 film – itself a remake of 1951’s The Thing from Another World – and not the 2011 [...]

If you squint really hard during Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.’s The Thing, you might notice that it’s actually prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 horror classic and not a remake. But just barely. The two films are plotted so similarly that if van Heijningen Jr.’s The Thing played out a few days later and a few clicks south, it’d be Carpenter’s The Thing. Only, you know, not nearly as good.

I realise [...]

At what point does a cinematic courtship get out of hand? At what point does one begin to grow weary of the two people onscreen continuing to ignore the fact that they are Perfect For Each Other? Is at the one decade mark? Two decades? Or – let’s throw a spanner in the works – is it less a matter of duration than it is one of execution? I’ll hazard [...]