Gravity

Finally, a 3D film to get excited about

There are two things you should know about Gravity, the new film from Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambien) starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. The first is that you should go and see it. To put it simply, it’s really good: a 90 minute cascade of adrenaline – a thriller made with tremendous care and attention to detail that is undoubtedly one of the best films you’re likely to see all year.

The second thing to know is that you should see it in 3D, and preferably in IMAX. I have written previously about my opposition to how stereoscopy has been used in recent years, but I genuinely think that Gravity is an absolute first: a film intended for mass release that has been meticulously designed for 3D by a director who really knows how to use it. Even Mark Kermode, the Commander-in-Chief of the anti-3D army, has been forced to admit that “Gravity is worth seeing in 3D”.

Review: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

The Most Undeserving Best Picture Nominee for a Very Long Time

Well, I didn’t hate it. Not the most encouraging start to a review and I reckon that it’s probably the high point, because Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is one of the most baffling and disappointing Best Picture nominees ever. Often irritating and constantly unmoving, this is a film which completely fails to do justice to the dreadful event of 9/11 which it invokes.

The story is simple enough. A boy, who may have Asperger’s, loses his father in 9/11 and a year later he finds a key amongst his father’s possessions in an envelope simply marked “Black”. Determined that this was left by his dad deliberately, the boy, Oskar (Thomas Horn), goes about New York seeking the lock that the key fits.