Author: Jordan King

Bangor alumnus Rory Farmer brings us the first recipient of our newly-created Short of the Month spotlight, a feature designed to cherry pick the very best sub-20 minute films that you can watch on the go for an instant cinematic hit to keep you going. Blue Milk is a hilarious superhero mockumentary, following the life of travel agent Joe who – after an encounter with some iffy milk – develops the ability to turn things blue. Mad skills, I know. Taking cues from sources as diverse as The Office, The Tick, and the sharp-cutting sharper-satirising work of British auteur Edgar…

Jim Cummings is very much a man in demand at the moment. Not only is he directing, producing, writing, and starring in films all over the indie landscape, but when I caught up with him the weekend before Halloween he was also hosting a get together to mark his pre-birthday celebrations and working on some buffalo chicken. Hands-free but all ears, here’s what went down when first-time interviewing schmuck Jordan King met moviemaking maverick Jim Cummings. *SPOILER ALERT* Some plot details from Thunder Road’s ending and The Sixth Sense’s feature in this interview. Q: I suppose the first…

Now TV – The Last Jedi Possibly the most divisive film of recent memory, Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi joined Now TV’s roster this past month. It’s a subversive, challenging sequel and a course-changing outing for our heroes and the villains; a film all about letting go of the past and embracing the future… plus Porgs! If you liked it when you first saw it, you’ll love it even more when rewatching; if you hated it, there’s no better time to give it a second chance; and if you haven’t seen it before, boy you’ve got some catching up to…

Review written 14/05/2018. In amidst the hustle and bustle of the Palais, staggering from one pondering intense drama to another, each as bleak yet often as breathtaking as the last, sometimes what is truly needed is a comfortable watch to recharge the batteries and lower the brow from high, a smattering of chuckles and a story that fits like a pair of old slippers, familiar, a tad musty, but rewardingly well shaped to the beats of the path you have trodden many times before. Enter Sink or Swim, a quirky French comedy that follows the fictitious creation of France’s first…

Review written 13/05/2018. A haphazard adaptation of a literary masterpiece sadly executed with the conviction of a tepid dystopian YA fic – the only fire stoked in Ramin Bahrani’s Fahrenheit 451 is by the firefighters and, when trying to grapple with one of the most incendiary works in literary history, that simply cannot be enough. For a story that is centred around the power of the written word and the stories we tell and are told, this wouldn’t be missed if the bookpocalypse ever came to pass. This was a film anticipated feverishly for ages but one too that in the…

Review written 12/05/2018. A bit Baby Driver, a bit A Clockwork Orange in the protagonist, a little bit Scorsese, smatterings of Tarantino, but make no mistake, Luis Ortega’s The Angel is an absolute breath of fresh air. Stylish, slick, and with a soundtrack to die for – almost literally – crime never looked so cool. Newcomer Lorenzo Ferro takes on the role of “The Angel” – Carlos Robledo Puch – the real-life teenage serial killer, rapist, thief, and arsonist who sent shockwaves around the world 40 years ago, a real life Dorian Gray if ever there were one and all…

Review Written 12/05/2018. Preceding the screening, Jim Cummings said it’s okay to laugh, it’s okay to cry. I laughed, I cried, and it was brilliant. Without a doubt the sleeper showstopper of Cannes 2018. I wish more people knew about Cummings’ work, they only just about filled a 350 seat theatre for a man whose work is pure and powerful, yet Godard draws in thousands for an absolute mess just because of the weight of a name. Thunder Road is absorbed in the inglorious nature of grief, the attempts to salvage pride in our darkest moments and the inexplicable things…

Review written 11/05/2018. Oscar Wilde once said that all art is pointless. Jean-Luc Godard’s The Image Book makes a compelling case for the truth in that assertion. The film does almost everything a film can possibly do and is undeniably mesmerising, but I defy anyone who says Godard’s grand concept reveals itself in any way upon first viewing. Stunted snippets from over a century of art, cinema, and historic news footage, spliced with stunted snippets of sound and the droll utterances of Godard himself philosophising in broken translations form the entirety of the New Wave maestro’s latest step towards oblivion. Godard…

Review written 11/05/2018. Mads Mikkelsen is THE man. Move over Castaway, The Grey, All Is Lost, The Revenant… Arctic is the definitive Man VS Nature film. The film picks up several weeks into the plight of light aircraft captain Overgård (Mikkelsen), who finds himself stranded in the vast abyss that is the Arctic. His daily routine consists of baiting for fish, trying to pick up a signal to call for help, and working to keep a giant SOS sign carved into the ice. He has a primal machismo and a steeliness in the face of the unforgiving clime, resolutely waiting…

Review written 10/05/2018. I have just left the Grand Lumiere Theatre after attending the premiere of Zimna Wodjna – Cold War. My thoughts are flying away from me and all I am left with is absolute revelry. Out of nowhere a moment of luck and kindness granted me a chance to fulfil a lifelong dream, and there I was, walking the red carpet and taking a seat amongst the very people who I have spent a lifetime looking up to and aspiring to join. If ever there was a moment that could really change somebody’s life, this was it for…

Review written 10/05/2018. “We have one mother. One mother for all. She is sick.” So says a disaffected militant midway through Sergei Loznitsa’s Donbass, a pseudo-documentary with blacker than black humour that works only perfunctorily, a potentially smart move on Loznitsa’s part squandered by his inability to establish a tone and stick with it. And boy does he paint a very bleak portrait of his home nation, as lethargic as his directorial style. Using a vignette form with some admittedly well-executed transitions, Donbass takes aim at the fake news, fractured alliance, corrosive and explosive society of Ukraine circa 2014 but…

Review written 10/05/2018 So my first screening of Cannes 2018 has been and passed, after the hustle of getting into the majestic Palais I made the ascent to the quaint Bunuel theatre for a little publicised but much anticipated film, Willdlife. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan alongside newcomer Ed Oxenbould, the film follows the breakdown of a small American family against a backdrop of the dramatic Rockies mountain range and the oncoming wildfire that is ever-building but never reaching, destroying on the peripheries of idyllic suburban America as a metaphor for the internal ruptures explored throughout. In short, I…

There is nothing worse than a film that has the potential to be a groundbreaker, starts out with all of the promise you had hoped to be witnessing, and then goes and messes things up because it takes the viewer for a mug. Well hello Unsane, Steven Soderbergh’s read the terms and conditions thriller shot on the iPhone 7 Plus – available from all good retailers now; kerching. Claire Foy stars as Sawyer Valentini, a young woman who – under stress from being stalked – seeks a consultation at a mental health facility. When she unwittingly signs a contract consenting to…

Netflix. Amazon. Now TV. Kodi sticks. Illegal streaming. It has never been easier to watch films than it is today, and it has never been cheaper either quite frankly. For around £7 a month, you can pick any of the available streaming services and have hundreds of thousands of films ready to go in the comfort of your own home. Couple that in with home comforts like your favourite pyjamas and your cosy bed, all tucked up with Poundland’s finest nibbles and drinks at your disposal, and for a tenner at most, you’re good to go. Now, with Netflix dealing…