Film Review Club

The lives of three talented tennis players become intertwined through lust, love and talent but what brings them together, can soon tear them apart. Challengers certainly shows ambition with its impressive writing, strong performances and captivating cinematography. Telling the story of three vastly contrasting characters whilst illustrating the conflict that can arise through love and also the coldness that comes with a burning passion for winning. The nonlinear approach to the story works well and the transitions are executed really nicely, with the cinematography playing a huge part in that, with it being one of the more notable aspects of the movie. The soundtrack, combined with fast paced cutting helped deliver that tense atmosphere that always surrounded the three protagonists. There was always that sense of anxiety and discomfort which is undoubtedly projected from the two male protagonist, art in particular, as they both contend for Tashi. Zendaya’s character is certainly not a

A farming colony on the edge of the galaxy fights against a tyrannical force, relying on a small group of heroes to lead them. The Scargiver unfortunately fails to make me a believer in the franchise, granted it did provide some more emotional context to the key characters which did reel you in slightly further but the plot remained pretty dull and uninteresting. Even the action, that I was looking forward to the most, failed to impress me and that’s usually somewhere where Snyder thrives. There are some cool designs with the movements effects of the lightsaber type swords, looking pretty cool but you can definitely tell it was inspired by Star Wars because the thousands of laser shots always managed to avoid the protagonists. These films are watchable sure, commercialised filler that can occupy you for a couple of hours but I wish I just waited for the director cuts because it’s clear they’re going to be the much better versions, even Snyder seems disinterested in these early editions

Back to Black explores the life of Amy Winehouse, the making of her music that took the world by storm and her tumultuous relationship with Blake Fiedler Civil. Back to Black unfortunately feels like a biopic that will be forgotten about pretty quickly, although the story of Amy Winehouse certainly shouldn’t be! It’s a heartbreaking story highlighting the effects of alcohol, drugs and toxic relationships and also the dark side to fame. However the execution is a little lacklustre, despite there being a few scenes I actually really enjoyed. The problem biopics face is that its incredibly hard to get the pacing right, with so much to cover in a short period of time and the rest of the movie has to be pretty damn good in order to make up for it. Well, here, the performances were good, with Marisa Abela capturing the spirit of Amy nicely and Jack O’Connell doing brilliantly to illustrate the sort of charm that won the real Amy over in the first place. But I felt the cutting and editing ove

In a dystopian America, a group of war journalists race against time to reach Washington DC before a group of rebels descend on the White House. Alex Garland has produced a haunting insight into war journalism through the scope of a modern day American Civil War. The chilling intensity really kicks into gear in the second and third act but I still really enjoyed the introduction to the characters in the first act too. A24 have built up a really strong reputation when it comes to the cinematography displayed in their films and that’s no different here. The sheer variety of techniques illustrated throughout the movie was impressive in itself, often exploring a characters state of mind through the visuals in the frame. Then you combine that cinematography with the incredible sound effects and it created so many tense and nail biting moments that had the audience on the edge of their seats in anticipation. To balance those extremely tense moments, Garland employed a really nice soundtrack

A man earns a meagre living in an underground fight club but with his eyes set on revenge he slowly works his way through a notorious criminal enterprise. Dev Patel has created a really strong action movie with impressive set pieces and choreography, eye-catching  cinematography and an emotional motive for the protagonist that’s underpinned by an insight into the culture of India. I’ve heard about the struggles Patel had when making this movie and it was incredibly close to not being picked up by a studio but thankfully Universal stepped in and purchased the action flick for $10m. The trailer highlights the wonderful action but what it doesn’t do is indicate the wonderful cultural influences that are so heavily imprinted in the film. From Indian beliefs and folklore to the large trans community that is present in India too. Now before people start calling the film ‘woke’ this is probably one of the best films I’ve seen handle trans characters, it’s executed brilliantly and has a wonder