The Handmaiden

Loosely based on the novel Fingersmith by Sarah Walter, director Park Chan-Wook moves the story from Victorian England to Korea under Japanese Imperial control where a conman, under the alias Fujiwara, tries to con the rich heiress Lazy Izumi Hideko (Kim Min-hee) out of her illustrious inheritance. He enlists the help of Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri) but Izumi Hideko and Sook-hee begin to become close, and their feelings for one another begin to complicate the con.

Blindspot: A Streetcar Named Desire and The Apartment

I forgot to watch one of  the blindspot selected films last month, so here's two for the price of one

Thursday Movie Picks: Underdogs

 

When I think of underdogs I normally go straight to sport so each of these picks will be related to sports. You will also notice that each of these picks are based on true stories because, as commentators frequently say “you can’t write scripts like this”. Because who would have imagined that Leicester City would defy 5000-1 odds and pull off the greatest achievement in the history of team sport by winning the Premier League. Who would have thought Japan would beat two-time world champions South Africa at the 2015 Rugby World Cup to win their first Rugby World Cup game for almost 25 years? It’s true…you can’t write scripts like this.

Personal Shopper

Olivier Assayas’ Personal Shopper once again stars Kristen Stewart (the pair worked together on the Clouds of Sils Maria) as a sort of assistant to a famous individual. This time the individual in question is the notoriously demanding fashion model Kyra (Nora von Waldstätten), who Maureen (Stewart) acts as a personal shopper to. Maureen is also a medium and spends most of her downtime trying to contact her recently deceased brother who died of a heart condition of which Maureen also suffers.

Logan

Set in 2029 (I think) Logan (Hugh Jackman) is a cynical drunk who works as a chauffeur driving drunk teenagers to a casino or the next party destination. The only thing he has in his life is an ailing Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) who Logan takes care of. That is until a nurse asks Logan to take a young girl, Laura (Dafne Keen) to Eden (a safe space for mutants), for a large sum of money. This young girl has claws protruding from her fist, is she Logan’s daughter? Whatever the answer is Logan finds himself right in the heart of whatever this girl is involved in.

Toni Erdmann

In order to spend more time with his busy and career driven daughter, Ines (Sandra Huller), Winfried Conradi (Peter Simonischek) decides to visit her, unexpectedly, in Romania. At first, Ines humours him and devotes some time to him but soon her work takes over and Winfried has to leave. So, Winfired does the only sensible thing and tries to spend time with his daughter by pretending to be his life coach alter ego, Toni Erdmann, causing havoc in Ines' professional life.

Thursday Movie Picks #139: Remakes/Sequels/Reboots (of a movie that hasn't got one) You Want to See

A new Thursday Movie picks, and this week it’s movies ripe for a reboot, remake or sequel. Make sure to visit - http://wanderingthroughtheshelves.blogspot.co.uk/

Best Performances of 2016

I'm not a Graphic Designer

This is a list of the the best performances by actors (both male and female) of 2016. I didn’t manage to get round to seeing praised performances from Ruth Negga or Isabelle Huppert so they’re not gonna be listed for that reason. 

Hidden Figures

The lack of black nominations last year generated the #oscarssowhite trend on twitter but this year the number of black nominees for acting, directing, cinematography and of course best film has left them rather satisfied. Contrary to a tragically commonly held belief, the reason these films were nominated have nothing to do with the hashtag but the quality of the films, performances and the work by those involved.

Top 10 Films of 2016

It’s about three months into 2017 so it’s perhaps best I release my top 10 list of 2016. I have not seen every potential top 10 film from 2016 but I can’t really wait much longer. A film’s year is decided by the year it went on general release in the UK or US.