[REC] 2
Don’t press play.
The “found footage” horror is a film executive’s dream: produced on a shoe string with a deliberate lack of studio polish, star power or special effects, they have the potential to make…
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A life in
the pictures.
Films that stay with you.
Writing that looks a little closer.
Explore the collected reviews of Linda O’Brien.
397 REVIEWS · ONE CRITIC’S PERSPECTIVE
12 Years a Slave
Look back in anger.
Steve McQueen is without doubt one of the most exciting directors working today. His short career has already produced two iron-clad classics in Hunger and Shame and his reputation as an unflinchingly…
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20th Century Women
The female of the species.
If you’ve ever read around the subjects of film theory, feminism or a combination of the two then no doubt you’ve come across The Bechdel Test, in which films are judged by…
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21 Jump Street
Teen spirit.
Long awaited by nobody in particular, 21 Jump Street is a film adaptation of the ‘80s cop show that made a name for Johnny Depp. The address of the title is the…
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22 Jump Street
High jump.
As a great philosopher (David St. Hubbins from Spinal Tap) once said, there’s a very thin line between clever and stupid. Somewhere along this line is the comedic sweet spot – that…
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5 Broken Cameras
Life through a lens.
When Emad Burnat first picked up a video camera it was to document the new arrival of his fourth son. As time went on, he became known as the local cameraman and…
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A Cat in Paris
Feline good.
Earlier this year, French animation A Cat in Paris (directed by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol) lost out to Gore Verbinski’s Rango in the Best Animated Feature category at the Oscars. It…
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A Dangerous Method
A Freudian slip-up.
Sigmund Freud would have had a field day with David Cronenberg. This director’s work has been preoccupied by the beauty and horror of sex and death and at its best, has turned…
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A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Blood and sand.
If a childhood hooked on The X-Files has taught me anything, it’s that there are as many different kinds of vampires as there are cultures that fear them. The same could be…
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A Good Day to Die Hard
Cack in the U.S.S.R.
It’s pretty hard to fall asleep in an IMAX theatre. A film would have to have potent soporific effects to override the teeth rattling thunder of the sound system. Step forward A…
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A Haunted House
Frightful.
If, on my death bed, I am entreated to produce a few pearls of wisdom from my time spent on earth, I will have precious little to say. What I do stand…
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A Late Quartet
Four part harmony.
Christopher Walken has had a career of two halves. Thanks to his scene-stealing in Annie Hall as Annie’s brother Duane, Walken carved out a career as one of Hollywood’s go-to weirdos. His…
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A Little Chaos
Horticultural high society.
The main point of criticism I have regarding A Little Chaos is one which I have never levelled at a film before (and probably never will again) – it needs more gardening.…
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A Screaming Man
The Old Man and the Pool.
Contrary to its name, A Screaming Man is a very quiet film indeed. Written and directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, it is an elegant, absorbing and complex film; a deserving winner of the…
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A Touch of Sin
China crisis.
There is nothing more powerful than a well aimed shot of anger and perhaps nothing so difficult to convincingly pull off. The bursts of sudden and extreme violence in writer/director Zhangke Jia’s…
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About Last Night
Hart attack.
It’s quite a jarring experience to see David Mamet’s name pop up during the opening credits of the latest Kevin Hart vehicle. Ok, so the link is tenuous; About Last Night is…
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About Time
The time traveler’s life.
Richard Curtis’s latest film may be about time travel but is still very much a Richard Curtis film. There won’t be any plotting to kill Hitler or worrying about things like paradoxes;…
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Act of Valour
Modern warfare.
Act of Valour is not a great film but it is definitely an interesting one. This is a post Vietnam, post Iraq war movie, that is nevertheless completely uncritical of America’s rules…
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