thrillers
The Control Room, BBC One review - twisty thriller set in an ultra-noir GlasgowTuesday, 19 July 2022
The BBC publicity department doesn’t want reviewers to reveal too much about this three-parter in advance, so the description of its content here may seem skimpy. If you watch this mini-series, you will sort of understand why – its plot relies on... Read more... |
Blu-ray: PickpocketTuesday, 12 July 2022
Pickpocket regularly makes it into the list of best films of all times. It is a film-maker’s film, more of an essay on the art of cinema and a discourse on crime than a thriller. Much French art house cinema is characterised by serious intent and... Read more... |
Death on the Nile review - Kenneth Branagh flounders again as PoirotFriday, 11 February 2022
Death on the Nile, Kenneth Branagh's second visit to Agatha Christie's oeuvre, was supposed to be released in November 2020 but Covid, a studio sale and some embarrassing revelations about one of its cast members put paid to that. Was it worth the... Read more... |
Ozark, Series 4 Part 1, Netflix review - the Macbeths of the southern lakes in even deeper watersSaturday, 29 January 2022
They’re back, the Lord and Lady Macbeth of the Ozark District, otherwise sleek-seeming middle class Chicagoans Marty and Wendy Byrde. And thanks to the super-subtle performances of Jason Bateman and Laura Linney, we hate them more than ever – except... Read more... |
Munich: The Edge of War review - Jeremy Irons excels in a revisionist portrait of Neville ChamberlainTuesday, 18 January 2022
The name of Neville Chamberlain and the term “appeasement” have become indelibly linked, thanks to his efforts to accommodate Adolf Hitler’s bellicose ambitions in the run-up to what became World War Two.This film version of Robert Harris’s novel... Read more... |
The Unforgivable review - Sandra Bullock gets stuck in a doom-struck rutSaturday, 27 November 2021
Based fairly closely on Sally Wainwright’s 2009 ITV series Unforgiven, The Unforgivable replaces the former’s star Suranne Jones with Sandra Bullock and has airlifted the action from Yorkshire to Seattle. A beefy supporting cast including Jon... Read more... |
Leopards, Rose Theatre, Kingston review - a no-thrill thriller about sex and powerThursday, 09 September 2021
Is it a thriller? Is it a character study? Leopards, Alys Metcalf’s two-hander about a middle-aged white charity executive – male – and a young job applicant of mixed race – female – goes under the colours of both, but falls short of either genre.A... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: The Fifth Horseman is FearTuesday, 07 September 2021
One of several 1960s Czech films which explicitly addresses the Holocaust, Zbyněk Brynych’s 1964 thriller The Fifth Horseman is Fear ( …a pátý jezdec je starch) wrong-foots us from the first frame. There’s Jiří Sternwald’s jagged, brittle score, and... Read more... |
The Nest review – intriguing, off-kilter family dramaThursday, 26 August 2021
The Nest is a peculiar animal, hard to nail down, parts family drama and social satire, but with a creepy sense of suspense rippling under the surface that threatens to bust the plot wide open. The fact that it’s written and directed by... Read more... |
Reminiscence review - looks great but doesn't deliverThursday, 19 August 2021
Written and directed by Lisa Joy, who masterminded HBO’s Westworld TV series, Reminiscence is a grandiose sci-fi blockbuster that looks great, sounds deafening, but ultimately disappoints because it’s a genre-sampler that can’t find a distinctive... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2021: Fear of Roses / Myra's StoryThursday, 19 August 2021
Fear of Roses Assembly Roxy ★★★One of the more disconcerting aspects to this year’s Fringe is different venues’ contrasting reactions to the easing of Covid restrictions. Some – like Army @ The Fringe and the Traverse Theatre – maintain... Read more... |
Nobody review - Bob Odenkirk reinvents himself as all-action dynamoFriday, 11 June 2021
Fans of Bob Odenkirk’s work in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul will be delighted to see him taking centre stage in Ilya Naishuller’s thriller, but perhaps bamboozled at the spectacle of Odenkirk taking the plunge into the blood-splattered... Read more... |
