Chapter Two- Film Reviews

I've started writing now for Sheffield Hallam Magazine (SHULife) as a film critic, so here are a few reviews that I have done thus far:


New Film Review- Tyrannosaur
Director- Paddy Considine
Cast- Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman, Eddie Marsan
Certificate- 18
Running time- 92 minutes
Released- 7th October 2011
Considine delivers a film which beautifully balances rage and emotion in this stunning full-length debut. This film may represent his first stint as a director (with the exception of his short-film Dog Altogether, which also features Mullan and Colman) but he certainly doesn’t pull any punches, and weaves a tapestry of passion and sentiment which is juxtaposed superbly with a darker nature of violence and revenge. This film boasts breathtaking performances from Mullan and Colman, the latter of whom is nothing less than a revelation, shaking off the shackles of her comedy roots by delivering a genuinely heart wrenching performance.
It’s a film driven by the intensity of the script, which portrays the story of two people; Joseph (Mullan), a man almost permanently intoxicated coupled with his combustible personality, and a charity shop worker called Hannah (Colman). When these two first meet, Hannah’s religious nature and naively innocent view on the world, coupled with her residence in an affluent area of the city, leads Joseph to believe her to have the life he so desperately craves. It is only once we are introduced to James (Marsan), Hannah’s extremely jealous and abusive husband, that it becomes apparent that Hannah’s existence isn’t wrapped in cotton wool, and with this the balance of the film shifts, and it becomes as much tale of friendship as a poignant and existential meditation of revenge, righteousness and love.
Shane Meadows’ (a personal friend and work colleague of Considine’s) influence is obvious throughout, and Joseph certainly has elements of Meadows’ own characters (namely Combo from This is England and Richard from Dead Man’s Shoes), but nevertheless, Considine takes this film down a different path, and thus firmly stamps his own personal marker on this blistering debut film, that has set the bar for his next film at a very high standard.






Classic Film Review- Withnail & I
Director- Bruce Robinson
Cast- Richard E. Grant,Paul McGann,Richard Griffiths
Certificate- 18
Running time- 108 minutes
Released- 1986
Seen by many as the quintessential ‘cult film’, Withnail & I has gone down over the last twenty five years as one of the greatest British films ever. Loved (and quoted habitually) by everyone who has seen it, it is a great mystery as to why this film still has such a limited fan-base. It tells the tale of two unemployed actors in sixties London, the alcoholic Withnail (portrayed by Grant) and anxious ‘I’ (McGann), who narrates the story. Despite its comedy genre, the film nevertheless constantly presents itself with certain brooding undercurrents; whether it’s the drab, dreary conditions in which Withnail and Marwood (as any Withnail & I enthusiast knows is McGann’s character’s real name) live, or their ultimately various encounters with the country folk whilst on their holiday. It’s these darker moments that really drive the narrative along and keep the reader hooked, and they work in conjunction brilliantly with the film’s funnier moments- Uncle Monty’s lusting after Marwood, Withnail’s drinking of lighter fluid after discovering a lack of alcohol, or the scene near the end when a highly intoxicated Withnail and ‘I’ are sat in a cake shop demanding “the finest wines available to humanity”.