Tender, 2013. Directed by Lynette Wallworth.   SYNOPSIS: Documentary on a small steelworks town’s community who set up their own not-for-profit funeral service. Tender is the story of a former steelworks town in Australia. Its small, big-hearted community – somehow still cheery and uncomplaining despite how the overbearing factory has assaulted their spirit – launch […]

Second Coming, 2014. Directed by Debbie Tucker Green. Starring Idris Elba, Nadine Marshall and Alex Lanipekun. SYNOPSIS: A London woman is slowly driven mad by suddenly and inexplicably becoming pregnant. Naming your film after a poorly received Stone Roses album could be a creative risk, but when your protagonist, Jax (Nadine Marshall), suddenly becomes pregnant without […]

The celebrated British sci-fi anothology 2000AD has been experimenting with a new business model as of late – releasing entire story arcs from their weekly comic book (which are typically five page installments spanning over ten weeks) as collected ‘one-shot’ issues in the United States. The trend began with the collected editions of Dredd: Underbelly, […]

The Duke of Burgundy, 2014. Directed by Peter Strickland. Starring Sidse Babett Knudsen, Chiara D’Anna and Monica Swinn. SYNOPSIS: A relationship based on sadomasochism slowly begins to unravel. The Duke of Burgundy…more like 50 Shades of Burgundy – amirite? Up top! Anyone? That’s ok. This is a highbrow picture. One with credits for ‘Lingere’ and […]

OXI, An Act of Resistance, 2014. Directed by Ken McMullen. Starring Gabriella Wright, Alexis Georgopoulou, Eleni Kallia and Dominique Pinon. SYNOPSIS: A documentary essay linking classical Greek texts with the financial crisis in that same country over two and a half millenia later. OXI, An Act of Resistnace. That’s a nice subtitle. It sounds like […]

The Way He Looks (Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho), 2014. Directed by Daniel Ribeiro. Starring Ghilherme Lobo, Fabio Audi and Tess Amorim. SYNOPSIS: A blind teenage boy falls in love with one of his classmates. There’s a particular branch of film theory that deals entirely with the sense of touch in cinema; about how you […]

The Goob, 2014. Directed by Guy Myhill. Starring Sienna Guillory, Sean Harris, Hannah Spearritt and Liam Walpole. SYNOPSIS: A teenage boy in the rural North of England experiences life after school, dominated by his mother’s overbearing boyfriend.   There were a few different press screenings at 3pm on Thursday 9th October. Both Guidelines, a film in contention […]

Oliver Davis reviews East of West #14… “‘WARBOUND. The Endless Nation makes the first cut in the carcass once called America. The Apocalypse marches on in EAST OF WEST #14.” Again, East of West jumps from one storyline last issue to a different one here. Sometimes, several months could go by without us ever hearing […]

Oliver Davis reviews Prophet #45… “FINAL ISSUE OF PROPHET! The War in Space reaches its climax, but the story will continue…” Captain Qwest begins speaking, and occassional words are in closed brackets. There’s no explanation for what this means; does the fox-like being whisper? Are those words communicated telepathically? It’s one of the many maddeningly […]

Oliver Davis reviews 2000AD Prog #1893… Borag thungg, Earthlets! This week’s Prog has a senile pensioner, blue vampires, one of those deepwater fish with a bulb for a quiff and dog-faced humanoid zombies. A standard night out in Maidstone, then. The first of those – the senile pensioner – is Mrs Gunderson, currently hosting one […]