Filmmaker and freelance editor, based in central Scotland.
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The Girl with the Needle 2024
A stunning achievement. There’s a sense of grimy texture to the cinematography and production design that makes it feel incredibly authentic, like something beamed in from the past rather than merely a period drama. The performances are great across the board but I can hardly believe that the lead, Vic Carmen Sonne, is the same actor who so impressed in, the infinitely sunnier but no less devastating, Holiday. Her’s is a chameleonic transformation, subsuming herself into a role that plumbs the depths without ever losing your empathy for her plight. I want to see all of director, Magnus von Horn’s previous work now.
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Speak No Evil 2022
Subtle, slow burn and genuinely one of the most disturbing films I’ve ever seen.
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Prometheus 2012
The marketing campaign, with its beautifully realised virals, didn't set a foot wrong but it turns out all the filmmakers' artistry was employed in getting us to buy a ticket with very little left over for the main event. It's not all dreadful - the initial set-up has a certain something, Fassbender is terrific fun as a fey robot and Noomi Rapace is a remarkably sturdy heroine given how little she has to work with. But there's no story here to speak of and the tension generated as a result is negligible. What a missed opportunity.
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The Believers 1987
Director John Schlesinger slices the ham extra thick for this nonsensical, justly forgotten schlockfest about a Voodoo-ish religion taking over New York's cognoscenti. Written by Mark Frost, who went on to co-create Twin Peaks, and adapted from a novel called The Religion, you can imagine throughout the sort of turgid prose this began life as. Keen not to appear racist the film indiscriminately demonises all religions, various ethnic minorities, rich people, bleeding heart liberals, middle-aged single females and, most hilariously, milk.
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