[pullquote cite="" type="left, right"][amazon text=Amazon&template=carousel&chan=that film guy&asin=B002C4I10I][/pullquote] Set during the McCarthy-era USA Good Night, and Good Luck covers the battle between journalistic integrity and the overt bullying tactics of HUAC and the hunt for communist sympathizers during the Cold War. Directed by and co-staring George … [Read more...]
Review: 12 Years a Slave (2013)
Around awards time at the beginning of every year a host of films vie for everyone's attention. There are a selection of film types that do so by tackling ˜worthy' subject matters, or hold historically importance. Some are artistic, some powerful, others move you, astound you with their beauty or overwhelm you with their raw emotionally charged nature. Then every once in a … [Read more...]
The Act of Killing (2012) review by That Film Journo
Where do you start with a film as extraordinary as this? … [Read more...]
Behind the Candelabra (2013) review by That Film Guy
Having announced his retirement from directing, Academy award winner Steven Soderbergh has managed to cheat his announcement by producing a made-for-TV film based on the life of Liberace: Behind the Candelabra. Released in cinemas outside of the US, this biopic examines the relationship between Liberace (Michael Douglas) and his young chauffeur Scott Thorson (Matt Damon). … [Read more...]
The Great Gatsby (2013) review by That Film Guy
Arguably the greatest American literary work, F. Scott Fitzgerald's jazz-age love tale The Great Gatsby has seen four previous film adaptations all of which failed to capture the essence of the famous novella. These bring us to director Baz Luhrmann and his attempts brings his undoubted eye for style and excess to this latest version, reuniting with Leonardo DiCaprio for the … [Read more...]
Good Vibrations (2012) review by That Film Dude
Good Vibrations is the story of Terri Hooley, a Northern Irish DJ who founded the shop and record label of that name in the early 1970s, which was instrumental in introducing Irish punk groups to mainstream UK attention. Set against the backdrop of Ireland's Troubles, the film charts Terri's successes and failures at managing his shop and his life, and does so to a fantastic … [Read more...]
Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) review by That Film Guy
Hyde Park on Hudson is the country home of the mother of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Bill Murray), the 32nd President of the United States. In 1939 he hosted the first visit to America of a British monarch, King George VI (Samuel West) and his wife the Queen, Elizabeth (Olivia Colman). It happened to coincide with a blossoming relationship between him and his 5th cousin, Daisy … [Read more...]
Review: Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Zero Dark Thirty is "the story of history's greatest manhunt for the world's most dangerous man," chronicling as it does the search by the United States of America for their 'Most Wanted' Osama Bin Laden. Following on from director Kathryn Bigelow's 2009 Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker, about bomb disposal experts in Iraq, Zero Dark Thirty shows a growing interest in US … [Read more...]
Django Unchained (2012) review by That Film Guy
When Quentin Tarantino burst into the mainstream in the early 1990s he redefined what cinema was to be for the next decade. Utilising non-linear narrative, dialogue-heavy scripts he began creating his very own back-catalogue of homage and satires relating to exploitation cinema while single-handedly creating some of the most memorable and iconic characters in all of film … [Read more...]
Braveheart (1995) review by That Film Guy
Following on from The Man Without a Face, director and 80s megastar Mel Gibson turned his eye toward a historical epic about a Scottish legend; William Wallace in Braveheart. The film was a huge commercial and critical success earning $210m from a budget of $53m as well as winning the Best Director and Best Film Oscar at the 68th Academy Awards. … [Read more...]