If you want your film to have a touch of class, with intelligence, beauty, power and humanity at its heart, who are you gonna call? Whether it is a woman of strength and dignity in a supporting role, or an everywomen figure of hope and sensitivity fighting against an injustice in a dynamic lead role, … Continue reading Hall of Fame Inductee #5 Meryl Streep
There was some genuine surprise when I saw this had been made as an Amazon Original. I thought the character of Borat was old news, there certainly couldn't be anyone left, in America or otherwise, that wasn't wise to the joke by now, and aware of Sasha Baron Cohen's desire to satirise the hell out … Continue reading Borat: Subsequent MovieFilm
Way back in January 2020, not very long after rebooting The Wasteland, I wrote a post called True Crime Trio that looked at the growing interest (fuelled almost entirely by Netflix) in the obsession and phenomenon of killers and their often bizarre, sometimes not entirely straightforward, or even solved, case histories and life stories. The … Continue reading 12 of the Best… True Crime Documentaries
Welcome to the fourth instalment of Bad Movie Triple Bills, the section of the Wasteland reserved for films I watch that I kinda know I shouldn't waste my time on, but just can't keep my curiosity in check. This week we have a big budget flop, a promising (on paper) disaster and a low budget … Continue reading Bad Movie Triple Bill #4
The fourth in my series of films you would recommend to an alien to explain humanity dovetails nicely with my Hall of Fame inductee this week. It is Steven Spielberg's seminal anti war epic Shindler's List (1993). This one speaks for itself in many ways. As an exploration of evil and the men behind the … Continue reading Alien Rec’s No.4
Where do you start with Steven Spielberg? In one way or another he has shaped our film watching habits, and controlled what we think of as BIG films for almost 50 years. He may not have reached the artistic pinnacle of Kubrick or Tarkovsky, but he has dominated our idea of Hollywood Blockbusters since 1975, … Continue reading Hall of Fame Inductee #4 Steven Spielberg
Joe Wright's 2011 film version of Hanna starring Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana is an odd movie. It isn't bad. It just doesn't work. The idea at its heart is great, as are some of the action sequences, there is just something over styled about it that is jarring. I've been back to … Continue reading Hanna
Welcome to part 3 of the Bad Movie Triple Bills feature. As I am sure you are getting used to by now, this area is reserved for films I watched that left me palming my forehead in frustration, or puffing out my cheeks in boredom, or gritting my teeth in annoyance. Yes, those little nuggets … Continue reading Bad Movie Triple Bill #3
The third in my series of films you would recommend to a visiting alien to explain humanity is... the harrowing yet utterly brilliant Incendies (2010), directed by Denis Villeneuve, from the play by Wajdi Mouawad. Utilising a French and Arabic speaking cast you have probably never seen before, this brutal drama feels as close to … Continue reading Alien Rec’s No.3
There may be a lot of people that outside of his high profile film and TV adaptations know little of what Phillip K. Dick was all about. I couldn't say it better than his introductory paragraph on Wikipedia. So, here it is in full... Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was … Continue reading Hall of Fame Inductee #3 Philip K. Dick
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