Lawless and Silent House

The Wettest County in the World, also known as Lawless (which I will use to make a life just a little bit easier), is based on the novel written by Matt Bondurant, the grandson of one the main characters in his historical novel. Lawless is set during the probation era, a time in which alcohol was banned, thus presenting the opportunity for people to profit from the trading of alcohol. The Bondurant brothers – Forrest (Tom Hardy), Howard (Jason Clarke) and Jack (Shia LaBeouf) – are just one example of the many businesses that operate on the illegal trading of alcohol.

Leonard Cohen - Wembley Arena, September 9th, 2012

Today I will do something a little different to what I usually write about; it will be a review, not of a film, but of a concert. I have not written a review about a concert before, but how hard can it be?

The Imposter

This stunning and, at times, disturbing documentary basis itself on a true story that proves that true stories can be the most peculiar and incredible of them all. In 1994, a thirteen-year-old boy, Nicholas Barclay, went missing in Texas, three years later he is reportedly found in Spain. However, the boy found is not Nicholas Barclay, but Frédéric Bourdin who eventually decides to impersonate the boy. What is perhaps most shocking is that the family of missing child accepted that this was Nicholas. The film documents the events that occurred, hoping to provide some of the answers to how this 23-year-old man (with a French accent) posed as a sixteen old boy (with a Texan accent), managing to convince the missing boy’s own family in the process.

The pointless reboot was Bourne to be bad

As you are more than likely aware the new Bourne movie does not feature Jason Bourne (except for a picture or two), it is like the Halloween franchise not having Michael Myers in a film, I mean imagine how silly that would be! Moving on, The Bourne Legacy is set simultaneously to The Bourne Ultimatum with that Guardian reporter being shot by a Tory Telegraph reader. Meanwhile, Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) is trekking through Alaska and he happens to bump into Oscar Isaac, but suddenly the pair are attacked by drones.

Shadow Dancer

Tom Bradby used his three-year stay in Ireland as inspiration for the central story of his novel, Shadow Dancer. He covered many important events such as the peace agreement and the IRA ceasefire, and this peace agreement serves as a backdrop for the central story. The Irish problem still burns strong in the hearts of many Catholics and only just recently the Queen of England shook hands with terrorist Martin Mcguinness, who murdered children as well as the Queen’s own cousin, but remember a terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. 

Battleship

Hasbro (the company behind the Transformers franchise) have felt it to be a good idea to base a film on a board game called Battleship. Now, you must be thinking ‘hang on, there were no aliens in the game battleship’ and you will be correct in thinking such a thing, but the link between the film and board game is somewhat tenuous. It is clearly a Hasbro film as Battleship looks exactly like Transformers, but on sea and even worse (though granted I have not tortured myself watching the second and third films of the Transformers franchise).

Nostalgia for the Light

Two years after it premiered at the Cannes film festival, Nostalgia for the Light eventually hit British cinemas. It was released to very favourable reviews from both across the world and in its homeland of Chile, reviews were correct as Nostalgia for the Light certainly makes for compelling viewing. Patricio Guzmán’s startling documentary goes to the Atacama Desert to look at the skies in an attempt discover our origins, meanwhile, also in the Atacama Desert, a group of women search though the vast desert to recover the remains of the loved ones lost during Augusto Pinochet’s brutal regime.