Unbroken review

The credits for Unbroken, Angelina Jolie‘s big screen biopic of real life Olympian Louis Zamperini, reads like a wish fulfilment rendering of a cinematic supergroup. First you have a script by the Coen Brothers, William Nicholson and Richard LaGravenese, adapting from a novel, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand. Then you … Read more

LFF: ’71 review

The conflict in Northern Ireland may not seem at first to be the ideal or most appropriate setting for a survival thriller, but with ’71, director Yann Demange and screenwriter Gregory Burke have created one that proves its worth with class and elegant simplicity. The film begins with the introduction of Gary Hook (Jack O’Connell), a fresh recruit into … Read more

Starred Up review

Eric, played by Jack O’Connell, is a very troubled young man. Or as he puts it, he’s “starred up mate, and very fucking violent”. Eric has indeed been ‘starred up,’ which means he’s earned an early ‘promotion’ to a regular prison from Her Majesty’s Young Offenders Institution. Thanks to his violent nature, Eric is being transferred before … Read more