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Author Archives: Ross Birks
S. Darko (2009)
The idea of a Donnie Darko sequel feels like blasphemy. While S. Darko is completely beneath that film in almost every regard – ideas, execution, ambition, intelligence – by using it as a foundation, you end up with a film that is far more … Continue reading
Bully (2001)
Full of authentic environments and faces, Larry Clark’s Bully is suitably grimy and lived in. Clearly made by the same man who directed Kids, it retains that film’s edginess and aggressive young cast. Clark is obviously obsessed by this younger generation and fetishises … Continue reading
The Bunny Game (2010)
An absolutely sense-numbing, patience-testing attempt at “extreme” cinema. The Bunny Game begins with a prostitute (Rodleen Gestic) performing oral sex (unsimulated?) and follows her over one day of hustling tricks in alleys and motel rooms. She is repeatedly beaten and degraded and … Continue reading
August Underground’s Mordum (2003)
By losing all of the “in-between” moments of randomness and focusing exclusively on 80+ minutes of relentless, disgusting violence and reprehensible characters, August Underground’s Mordum loses everything that made the original film so effective. The captured moments here feel much more like … Continue reading
Posted in Movies Watched In 2016, Reviews
Tagged August Underground's Mordum, Fred Vogel
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Nixon (1995)
A grandstanding achievement from Oliver Stone. Nixon has the sweep and length of an all-American epic but really it’s just an incredibly in-depth character study. I always respond to Stone’s work when he turns things up to the max and when he clearly has … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews, Uncategorized
Tagged Anthony Hopkins, Joan Allen, Nixon, Oliver Stone
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Scream 2 (1997)
Like Scream, this is a film I’ve watched to death over the years. But unlike Screamit doesn’t quite hold up as well. The opening sequence in the cinema is a fucking all-timer. It’s Craven firing on all cylinders and is inventive, surprising and upsetting … Continue reading
August Underground (2001)
August Underground is a gruelling watch but appropriately so. Presented as a string of found footage clips from a pair of serial killers’ Mini DV collection, it certainly looks and feels the part. First off: the violence, the perspective, the ideology, … Continue reading
U Turn (1997)
It’s a good time to be an Oliver Stone fan. Or at the very least it’s a good time to be thinking about Oliver Stone. His latest film Snowden has just hit cinemas but more interestingly, Matt Zoller Seitz recently published The Oliver Stone Experience; … Continue reading
Posted in Movies Watched In 2016, Reviews
Tagged Claire Danes, Jennifer Lopez, Joaquin Phoenix, Nick Nolte, Oliver Stone, Sean Penn, U Turn
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The Bad News Bears (1978)
Pleasurably foul-mouthed and un-PC, The Bad News Bears takes the kiddie sports-team formula (or was this the origin of that trope?) and filters it exclusively through a grainy 70s Hollywood lens. The kids drink booze, smoke, swear, act out and the film … Continue reading
Posted in Movies Watched In 2016, Reviews
Tagged Jackie Earle Haley, Michael Ritchie, The Bad News Bears, Walter Mathau
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"This Film Should Be Played Loud" 