Friday 30 December 2016

Film Round-Up 2016

Under normal circumstances, this post is the easiest I have to write each year. 

Going to the pictures between 2-3 times a week and seeing virtually every new release my local cinema has to offer means I'm usually able to watch a wide variety of films and form an opinion on them accordingly at the end of the year. Throughout the twelve months I make a note of standout films and performances, scores that I love and cinematography that makes me swoon. As such, by the time December rolls around compiling my thoughts into a vague list of favourites is pretty simple. However, this year it's been extremely difficult and has taken ages for me to come to a final decision as there weren't many films - if any - that stood out to me in the way that the likes of Brooklyn and Carol did last year, or The Grand Budapest Hotel and Interstellar did back in 2014. 

I've gone through all of my ticket stubs for the last year, rewatched numerous trailers and finally narrowed down my choices for the best films of 2016. As ever, I've been pretty strict and only included films that I've actually seen, and that have a U.K. release date during 2016, which is annoying as the best films I've seen this year don't come out till January (Manchester by the Sea, La La Land, A Monster Calls...).


Tuesday 15 November 2016

Transformation Tuesday: Week 125

Okay folks, let's talk about the hell that is loose skin, and the operation I'm having in 6 days to fix it.


Tuesday 8 November 2016

Transformation Tuesday: Week 124

I'm sure I'm like the majority of people at the moment and waiting with baited breath the see how the US election unfolds, and as such I'm not really in the right frame of mind to write about my life when there's much more important things going on in the world!



Tuesday 6 September 2016

Transformation Tuesday: Week 115

By the weekend I thought I'd smugly avoided jet-lag but I admit that I've been cocky. I am so tired it's not even funny.


Tuesday 30 August 2016

Transformation Tuesday: Week 114

Although I feel like I have lots to say, this week's post is going to be super short purely out of necessity: I'm on planes all day travelling home from Vegas so blogging opportunities are going to be pretty hard to come by!

I'm squeezing this in before my first flight as I think I'll be out of action for at least another 24 hours!


Tuesday 2 August 2016

Transformation Tuesday: Week 110

Another week down, another week of positivity. Plus, I think I talked myself out of a three week crash diet so that's good!


Tuesday 26 July 2016

Transformation Tuesday: Week 109

I've been continuing with my 'saying yes' philosophy this week and it feels almost as if I've turned over a whole new leaf. Who am I?*

*Jean Valjeannnnn



Tuesday 19 July 2016

Transformation Tuesday: Week 108

I've never been a spontaneous 'yes' person.

If talking yourself out of social situations due to irrational and unfounded internal fears was an Olympic sport I'd be off to Rio in a few weeks' time to win myself a gold medal. I'm an expert at wanting to do so many things and either stopping myself before I can agree to them, or saying yes and then flying into such a severe anxiety attack that I have no other option but to cancel in order to straighten my head out.

Well, not any more. I decided to challenge myself be a 'yes' person in the latter half of 2016, and for once I stepped up rather than hiding in a corner and panicking. As it so happens, saying 'yes' isn't half as scary as I once thought.


Tuesday 5 July 2016

Transformation Tuesday: Week 106

Channeling Daenerys has been such a godsend this week. I feel more like 'me' than I have in ages, so I really can't complain about this change in direction!



Tuesday 28 June 2016

Tuesday 31 May 2016

Sunday 22 May 2016

Coming Soon: May 2016

As ever, May's a bit of a mixed bunch film-wise!

There are comedies (Bad Neighbours 2 and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot); animated family-favourites (Angry Birds and Robinson Crusoe); biopics (I Saw the Light and Florence Foster Jenkins) and CGI filled IMAX blockbusters (X-Men: Apocalypse, Alice Through the Looking GlassTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows and Warcraft). Then there's the sort-of sequel to Dazed and Confused from acclaimed director Richard Linklater, Everybody Wants Some!!, a college comedy that has been met with multitudes of 5* reviews but left me cold as it reminded me of everything I detested about university...

Also of note is Patrick Stewart's villainous turn in violent drama Green Room; Jodie Foster's latest thriller featuring veterans George Clooney and Julia Roberts alongside 2014 golden-boy and up and coming star Jack O'Connell, Money Monster; Terrence Malick's bizarre-looking drama with an astonishing cast Knight of Cups; Jane Austen period drama Love and Friendship; and John le CarrĂ© espionage thriller Our Kind of Traitor.

While there might not be as many films opening this month as there have been previously this year, I think it's safe to say there'll be something for everyone!


Tuesday 17 May 2016

Transformation Tuesday: Week 99

I can't quite believe I'm careening into 100 of these posts without a huge update to speak of, and I have to say - yet again - things are pretty boring round here at the moment.


Tuesday 3 May 2016

Transformation Tuesday: Week 97

In a stark contrast to last week I didn't forget about this post, however I still don't have much to say...



Tuesday 26 April 2016

Thursday 31 March 2016

Coming Soon: March & April 2016

Once again, my Coming Soon post is more of a 'what you could have seen this month' as it's so late... apologies! In an effort to make up for this, I've combined March and April, so you'll hopefully be able to catch a couple of films from March that are still in cinemas and mark your calendars for those up and coming in the next few weeks. May will be better, I promise!

March was packed with horror films - 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Boy, The Witch; sequels - The Divergent Series: Allegiant, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2; and stunning animation, from family favourite Kung Fu Panda 3, to the astonishingly brilliant Anomalisa, and new Disney classic Zootropolis (I've already seen it twice and tell everyone I meet to head to a cinema immediately. The Breaking Bad joke in particular shouldn't be missed!). Then there was the latest Coen brothers' masterpiece in the form of Hail, Caesar!, Ben Wheatley's faithful adaptation of J.G. Ballard's dystopian novel, High-Rise, and the highly divisive - but no where near as bad as critics have declared - superhero behemoth Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.

April, on the other hand, is a little more varied. It kicks off with British feel-good film Eddie the Eagle; showcases a couple of documentaries - I am Belfast, The Last Man on the Moon; and takes a historical turn with World War One drama The Man Who Knew Infinity, Cold War spy thriller Despite the Falling Snow and tales of tense Middle East drone warfare Eye in the Sky. There's the hotly anticipated live-action remake of The Jungle Book; Tina Fey's latest comedy Whiskey Tango Foxtrot; Miles Davies biopic Miles Ahead, directed by and staring Don Cheadle; intelligent and gripping sci-fi Midnight Special; and battle lines are drawn when Marvel's favourite superheroes clash in Captain America: Civil War. Perhaps most exciting of all are the foreign films making their way to cinemas in April: the winner of the Palm D'Or at Cannes, Dheepan, and Best Foreign Language film everywhere else including the Oscars, Son of Saul, finally come to the U.K., and given their rave reviews over the last few months it looks like they'd be well worth seeking out.

As ever, all synopsis, release dates and trailers are below, along with star ratings for the films I've already seen. Hopefully this will throw up a couple of films to seek out from March, and those to look out for in April!



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