Film Reviews by TB

This is the first Robert Eggers film I've watched, but I have heard many things about his previous films, in particular the Lighthouse, which is on my watchlist. Eggers's films are full of incredible imagery, dark malevolent themes & supernatural horror. And the Northman is an incredible concoction of all of the above, filled with amazing performances.

Set hundreds of years ago, it is based on the legend of Amleth who, as a young boy, witnesses the brutal slaying of his father by his uncle Fjölnir, only just escapes & then swears revenge. We then fast-forward to Amleth as a grown man & then watch as he slowly gets closer to Fjölnir to exact his revenge.

The best way I can describe this film is totally, completely and utterly crazy, but in the best possible way. It is an extremely violent (the attack on the village is at times wince-inducingly shocking, though incredibly filmed,) but totally seriously acted film. In many ways, it almost fairy tale-like in its morality and the paths that the various characters have to walk down.

Every actor is great, but for me the stand-out was Nicole Kidman. In a film which is full of testosterone and manliness, she absolutely cuts through all of it with an electric & visceral performance. Every moment she was on screen crackled with danger & shock.

There are also many stunning images, particularly at night when Amleth is hunting, slowly taking out everyone who stands between him and Fjölnir. The ending is also excellent as well, a welcome relief after a film which does so many things right.

I look forward to watching more of Eggers's work and absolutely can see his amazing ability to put together films which really leap out of the screen, demand your attention and absolutely push back against the turgid & incessantly repetitive schlock that Hollywood seems to churn out today.

Before Taken, Liam Neeson was an actor who was known for many film roles, whether it was a Jedi, a sex therapist, a union leader or a rescuer of hundreds of Jews who would have been slaughtered by the Nazi death machine. Then Luc Besson & Pierre Morel came calling, offering him the lead in their new action film. And the rest, as they say, is history...

Bryan Mills is a single dad who is filled with not only a profound guilt about the breakdown of his family unit but also a fear that his daughter will one day be harmed by some of the people that Mills deals with in his line of work. That line of work is espionage, security and a previous life as part of an elite military unit. However, these days he lives alone in a small house & spends his days obsessing over which karaoke machine to buy his daughter for her birthday. When she then asks to be allowed to follow a band over Europe, despite his better judgement, he agrees. Obviously, the proverbial then hits the fan and Mills has to race against time to track down his daughter.

The best thing about Taken is quite simply that it is an unbelievably tightly made action thriller. Although there are a couple of sequences that go on a little too long & a few things that don't hold up to scrutiny, as a whole it is an incredibly well-made & genuinely gripping film. Neeson himself is incredible with how he handles the action scenes, bearing in mind he was in his late 50's when he shot it. The script is simple, direct & tells it's story well.

For me, even though I give it 4 stars and do enjoy it, there is one quite big problem with it which almost no-one else apart from a couple of professional reviewer's have commented on: there is an unbelievable whiff of racism throughout the whole film, mixed in with irony. Anyone who isn't American is a baddie, and Mills will lecture them about American values even though he has a thick Irish accent... The irony is off the charts here, but it does at times come across as quite unpleasant. The one review I remember picking up on this said: "It's basically a film where a group of dirty Albanian b*******s kidnap an American girl then traffic her through France overseen by dirty French b*******s then sell her to dirty Arab b*******s." As much as it is a crude view, it doesn't mean there isn't a lot of truth in it.

However, on its own merits as a film, it's an enjoyable & thrilling romp and perfect Friday night viewing when you want to have a laugh & not take it too seriously.

Call Me By Your Name (CMBYN) is stunning. It is a deeply personal love letter to anyone who has ever wrestled with love, irrelevant of your sexuality, although of course for people who are LGBTQ+, it will have deeper resonance.

Set in Italy in the 80’s, it is about a teenage boy called Elio who lives with his parents in a perfect paradise: massive house, beautiful locations, live-in chef & supportive parents. Every year, his father, who is a professor, takes in a student who stays with them over the summer to study. This year, it is an extremely handsome & engaging man called Oliver, who Elio starts to fall madly in love with. The film then looks at their burgeoning love affair, all the while ticking down to when the summer is over & Oliver has to leave to go back home. Along with the way, there are also girlfriends, disagreements as well as profound bonding & heartbreaking first love.

For me, it is in many ways amazing, although despite the 5 stars, there are some issues I personally have. The main one amusingly is Timothée Chalamet. I say amusingly, because all I seem to hear from the many reviewers & people who watched it was how incredible his performance was. Don’t get me wrong, he was good, but I also never liked Elio or the way he played him that much. It is clear that Chalamet is channelling James Dean with every fibre of his being, as well as every other precocious performance that has been done. And the problem with precocious characters is that they almost always come off badly, hence the difficulty there is in playing them. Chalamet does his best, but to me the star of the film by a country mile is Armie Hammer. 

Oliver, as the handsome & muscular American student, is also a very difficult role to play. It would be so easy just to coast through & allow your looks and charm to do the heavy lifting. But honestly, this is Hammer’s best role & also the best performance in the film, in a movie filled with them. Oliver is so much more than the sultry heartthrob, especially as he himself starts to realise the feelings he has for Elio. He is also very well written as a character who you never really know in some ways, but this is also shown in his internal struggles. The other incredible performance was from Michael Stuhlbarg as Samuel, Elio’s father & the only one who sees the love between Elio & Oliver. 

But for me, the other reason this film gets 5 stars is because of how is looks. It is like being in the most beautiful dream you could imagine. Colours pop out, whether it is the bright orange juice or egg yolks at breakfast, through to the beautiful crackling fires in the corner of the room. The water is also shot perfectly as well, such as a sequence when the characters go out & watch ancient statues being recovered from the ocean floor. The sound & locations are also flawless, transporting us to this little piece of heaven when we all wished we had been able to grow up in. 

As the film progresses, we get the chance to, in one of my favourite sequences, leave the family & house in the country and just spend time with the two leads, watching the further character development as they take a holiday & make memories. A sequence running up a hill towards a waterfall is a particularly incredible moment cinematography wise. 

Then, as it must, it ends with the two having to say goodbye, turning the film into a mourning of loss & grief. The speech by Samuel is so beautiful in terms of how it deals with the revelation that he had about the intimacy that his son shared with Oliver, stripping back everything to just seeing the pure love at its heart. 

Finally & again something that many people will react angrily to: I emphatically do not want a sequel to this film. This is a one-off, a piece of perfection that cannot & should not be revisited. Leave well alone & be grateful that we had the opportunity for all these talented people to come together & create this piece of beauty. 

This series is amazing. The cast, some of whom are well-known, others in their first roles, are perfect. The scenes are masterfully set & directed. The emotion & pain on the screen sears into your very being and stays there, haunting you. This is some of the best TV I have ever watched. It is also meticulously researched and welcomingly has been made with the full cooperation of the Jones family, who at the end are featured in a short section where they talk along with the detectives who finally brought Rhys’s killers to justice. 

The series looks at the murder of Rhys Jones, who was a football mad little boy living in Liverpool with his family. One day after finishing football practice, he is walking back across the car park next to the training ground when he is caught in the crossfire of a gang feud. In no way is he involved & as the series progresses, it is slowly revealed just how heinous this crime was (literally a gang member who spots rivals across the park, pulls out a gun and shoots indiscriminately at them, with countless innocent bystanders in between him and them/in the car park.) 

One of the best parts about this series is how it starts. Even though as the viewer you will probably know even the bare bones of the story, it still starts as a completely normal, painfully painfully ordinary day. And the series just leaves you on the edge, waiting the moment when all hell breaks loose. The scenes in the hospital, as Rhys slips away, are so difficult to watch, I feel myself getting tears in my eyes just thinking back to the scene. That is the level of power this programme has.

From then on, the series barely lets up, even in the quiet moments. The main protagonist, for lack of a better word, is Stephen Graham’s Dave Kelly, the lead investigator who becomes absolutely dogged in his determination to bring not only the killer but also the people who aided & abetted him to try and avoid the law. Graham, who is himself from Liverpool and grew up 10 minutes away from where the murder happened, is absolutely incredible. Massive praise must also be given to the actors playing Rhys’s parents. Everyone is at the top of their game. 

Over the course of 4 episodes, you are simply blown away by what you see. And it is so emotional at times it is almost unbearable. One of the things which most affected me was the revelation that, after the killer had fired the first two shots and one had hit Rhys, which he would have been in full view of/been able to see, he then continues to fire. That level of evil is something which can never be reckoned with. 

This is extremely challenging viewing, but also essential. It is vital not only to understand the the case but also the fact that the killer & his accomplices almost got away with murder. I loved every minute, despite the fact it, at the time and still now, haunted me.

Essential viewing.

When you are living in the Trump era and one of the greatest living filmmakers teams up with two of the greatest actors to make a film about the Pentagon Papers, you feel that it is going to be a amazing film. Then when the 4 & 5 star reviews come in, this is pretty much confirmed to you. But like a lot of films before it, the actual movie doesn’t in any way live up to the hype. 

The best way I can describe this movie is it is what I think would have been the result if Spielberg had watched Spotlight then thought “I want to make my own version of that film!” Like Spotlight, large amounts of time are spent either in a newsroom or in huddles discussing classified documents in tense voices. There is the usual pressure from editors from above and the fears that the story will be leaked or not be allowed to run.

But the problem I have is quite simply this: it is so boring. I didn’t care what happened, how it happened or who it involved. This is a film which might have been dealing with an important piece of history, but for me I simply couldn’t care less. Obviously being a Spielberg film it is extremely well made from a technical standpoint, hence the 2 stars, but nothing else in it caught fire for me. I also recollect extremely sanctimonious interviews with Hanks & Streep when they were promoting it, comparing it to the multiple controversies with the Trump presidency, whilst in no way exploring why massive numbers of people across the USA would feel so disenfranchised & angry that they would consider voting for him…

Despite its good intentions, not a film I can recommend. 

For his next directorial effort after the outstanding Tyrannosaur, Paddy Considine turns his attention to the sports drama, in particular the boxing genre. This is an extremely brave & bold thing to do. Not only is this an unbelievably bloated genre with more films set in it trying to tell pretty much the same story than probably any other genre combined, but the numbers of these films which are actually good is relatively tiny. But one of the best things about Journeyman is the fact that the boxing is used as the initial set-up, but then the main section uses only the metaphor of the fight required to recover. 

The set-up is fairly standard, although with one important difference: whereas in many films like this, the fighter needs the fight due to their personal circumstances, in Journeyman this is the final fight to finish a glittering career. Retirement beckons and the life of spending time with family and raising children is close. Matty Burton is Middleweight boxing champion of the world, on his final fight against the up-and-coming cocky young upstart. Despite significant & severe punishment in the bout, Matty wins and keeps his belt, retiring on what appears to be a high. However, he has suffered horrific & traumatic brain injuries and collapses that night, needing emergency brain surgery to save his life. 

When he returns home, he is a very different man, dealing with all the complications of a traumatic brain injury. The film shows this in unflinching detail and it is at times excruciating to watch. You really get a front row seat to this hell, as well as the small triumphs that happen with the work that Matty puts in to his recovery. There are many heartfelt scenes, particularly after it gets all too much for his wife Emma. But the rallying round of his teammates and family is also incredible as well. 

Both Considine & Whittaker are great, sharing an easy and effortless chemistry. The early scenes of them bonding, considering that there is very little time to do this before the story properly starts, are powerful & grounding. I did love spending time with them both , plus really felt their pain as the film progresses. 

This is a very difficult drama to watch, but there is hope if you hang on in there. Another great film from Considine & I look forward to what he does next. 

Jim Davison is marmite. To many people, they cannot forgive him for his material when it was perfectly acceptable to be racist on stage. This review is not trying to change your mind and I totally respect people’s feelings and experiences. For me, as I will consistently say, there are no such things as bad professional stand-up comedians. It is either your humour or not. If it isn’t, don’t watch it. I should point out that in this DVD as much as Davidson makes fun of different cultures, it is not in any way like his previous shows. 

This gig combines some of Davidson’s standard material with some very funny stories of when he went out to different war zones to play to/entertain the troops. I found it very funny and amusing.  There is a very large amount of strong language, but if this doesn’t bother you and you want a really good laugh, this is a great show. 

Immediately after he had finished filming The Mother, Daniel Craig reteamed with Roger Michell to star in his next film. And whilst the subject is in many ways as captivating, it also feels like a missed opportunity, filled with random characters and a meandering plot. However, the biggest positive is that we have some characters who are likeable. And there are some very good moments, particularly the opening scene which is masterfully shot & exquisitely building the tension which is to come.

Craig stars as Joe, a college professor who, in the opening shots, has gone for a romantic picnic with his partner Claire. Their peace is suddenly traumatically interrupted due to a ballooning accident that happens in front of them. In the battle to save the young boy trapped inside, a man is killed after joining in the efforts to help try to bring the balloon down. One of the other men involved, Jed, then becomes absolutely fixated by Joe and begins to stalk him relentlessly, becoming increasingly threatening. Added to this is the fact that no-one believes Joe when he tells them about this, either thinking he is imagining it or is mistaken.

There are, despite the 3 star rating, many positives and good things about this film, mainly the cast. Having Roger Michell, who also made Notting Hill, as the director has attracted an amazing roll call of actors. I felt that, as much as he gave it his best shot, Daniel Craig was actually the weakest of all of them. Although that was mainly due to how his character is written, because Joe as a person is actually quite boring. He is, despite his job as a teacher, unbelievably socially awkward and although you sympathise with him, you never really like him that much. Samantha Morton also tries her best and does play the disconnected artist and unsure lover quite well.

However, partly the reason for the lack of impact from the other actors is due to the incredible performance of Rhys Ifans. In the special features, Michell had talked about the fact that many people would have expected Craig to be cast as Jed, but the genius of Ifans is that he plays totally against type. Jed is such a creepy person, and Ifans accentuates every single one of these characteristics. Although at first coming across as a bit of a drippy-hippy type person, Jed has an unbelievable aura to him, as well as a deviousness & danger below the surface. He certainly is not harmless, and you as the audience are made to feel every bit as uncomfortable as Joe is throughout the film. But at the same time you cannot take your eyes off him.

Unfortunately, despite this excellent work, sadly the film itself does have some significant issues. The main one by a country mile is how slow moving at times this movie is. I appreciate that the slowness of pace makes the sudden shocks have more impact, but it is extremely meandering and there are some scenes which should really have been left on the cutting room floor. Also, the soundtrack leaves much to be desired, the potential filled instead with mainly melancholy and boring strings.

But this is still a good film in many ways, and absolutely see it for Ifans.

Having a mother who has Alzheimer's disease certainly adds a much more personal dimension to this viewing experience. This is the film, adapted from the massively successful play, which looks at the everyday life and challenges of Anthony, an extremely gregarious and friendly man who lives alone in a beautiful flat in London. However, Anthony's dementia has started to cause major issues and worries for his immediate family, particularly his daughter Anne. Anthony becomes more and more difficult to support, as in line with many suffers of Alzheimer's, he absolutely refuses help and becomes very angry & frustrated when this is mentioned to him. He also accuses his carer of stealing from him and mistakes various members of his family for complete strangers.

The thing that the film does scarily well is to put you front and centre in Anthony’s life and the hell that comes from that. It is like watching a slow-motion car crash, but with someone who actively is wanting everything to fall down around him due to his obstinacy.

Hopkins’s performance is absolutely extraordinary and his richly deserved his second Oscar win. Olivia Colman is also heart-breaking good as the desperate daughter who cannot, despite her best efforts, succeed in changing her father’s behaviour in the slightest, enabling him to be able to help himself. The whole film is also very well directed by Florian Zeller, who wrote the script too.

The only reason this didn’t get 4 stars was that for me, despite all the fleshing out of the characters and the headspace that Anthony is in, I did at times feel a bit bored and had to come back to the film again after a break, as I found myself losing focus. But this is a small price for drama this good.

In the mid-2010's, Nicolas Cage was chucking out movies faster than probably half of the actors of Hollywood combined. And he also had developed a reputation for basically saying yes to any piece of rubbish imaginable. So whilst we had some incredible films (Bad Lieutenant being a masterpiece, Joe and Mandy not far behind that,) pretty much everything else was toe curlingly terrible, which also caused Cage as an actor a huge amount of damage. It was so easy to scoff at him, but he is, when working at his peak, one of the finest actors we have. His absolute fearlessness and willingness to take on the strangest of stories & turn in phenomenal performances knows no bounds. And whilst with The Frozen Ground (TFG,) he is starring in a fairly (in some respects,) by the numbers cop/police procedure film, he is absolutely brilliant in it, also being surrounded by many other great actors.

TFG looks at the police operation which eventually led to the capture of Robert Hansen, an absolute monster of a man who was eventually convicted of multiple murders. Cage plays Jack Halcombe (who was inspired by Glenn Flothe, the actual detective,) who is looking into the case of a murdered woman and then links the disappearances of other women to one killer. He quickly suspects Hansen, played by John Cusack, and starts to aggressively investigate him.

As mentioned, Cage is absolutely brilliant. He absolutely commands and anchors the film, at all times coming across as absolutely committed and determined to catch the monster murdering women. But the other performances are also exceptional, chief among them Vanessa Hudgens as one of the only women who manages to escape & go to the police, eventually helping them nail Hansen. The role that Hudgens plays is an extremely sexualised one, but this is no cynical part to get headlines: Hudgens is amazing and totally convincing. You really felt her pain and also the horror of the situation that she finds herself in, having to sell her body in order to survive, whilst still being aggressively chased by Hansen after escaping from him.

The other element where this film soars is how it is shot. It looks stunning: gorgeous colours, incredible locations, phenomenal mise-en-scene. The forests go from a gentle place of nature to an intimidating and oppressive prison. The soundtrack is also brilliant, working hand in glove with the horror unfolding on screen.

As the film picks up speed, enhanced by how the events unfold, the film does really effectively go into thriller mode, with you on the edge of your seat. And whilst everything works brilliantly, there then is a slight issue: for about 10 minutes, the film suddenly shows a series of narrative decisions which jarr things. Now whilst I am perfectly happy to hold my hands up and say I was wrong if what the film depicted actually happened, but some of the choices made by the characters just really didn’t click for me. But this is still absolutely a 4 star film and my only frustration is that up until that point, this film had not put a foot out of place.

The ending, followed by the epilogue, is both horrifying and hopeful, showing that despite the evil committed, good can come of the worst things.

This film is wonderful. I loved it and it is up there with the best of Cage’s work.

In the mid 2000's, Matthew McConaughey was the go-to guy for rom-coms, starring in multiple highly successful movies. But then, by his own admission, he deliberately stepped back from Hollywood and that genre of film. It's easy to see why: when he first became an actor, he starred in a massive number of different genres. And then when he found his niche, he settled into it, just churning out the same clichéd romantic sap, which whilst it wasn't critically acclaimed, did pay the bills. So he wanted a clean slate and to get back to his routes. When, to quote him again, the phone started ringing again after a nearly 2 year hiatus, this was one of the first scripts that came his way.

The story of Ron Woodruff is in many ways so outrageous, outlandish & crazy, you are amazed to find out it is largely true and also that it hadn't been made into a film earlier. But it is also a movie with enormous heart, soul & emotion. And the cast absolutely rise to the challenge. The other elephant in the room that I want to deal with is that this film made headlines due to the enormous amounts of weight McConaughey & Leto lost in preparation for their roles. But this is so much more than just another vanity project for actors wanting to jumpstart their careers again (which this film emphatically is not.)

In the mid-80's, Ron Woodruff is a spit-and-sawdust roughneck Texan electrician, who in the opening shots is shown hiding in a bull riding pen banging the brains out of two enthusiastic women. Woodruff is the stereotypical Yank: hard drinking, drug using, hyper-sexed life & soul of the party. He is also deeply homophobic, racist, sexist & xenophobic. Following an industrial accident which puts him in hospital, he wakes up to be told that he is HIV positive & has 30 days to live. Initially rejecting this, eventually as his health rapidly deteriorates, he starts to look at alternative medicine which whilst in use in other countries, are not authorised for sale in the US. However, due to a legal technicality, he is able to start a "Buyers Club" where people pay for membership & the drugs are given "free."

The story then becomes an incredible tale showing the battle Woodruff had not only with the government but also the medical bodies who were determined to thwart him, despite the staggering results & successes he had. For example, the treatments & drugs he provided had one-tenth the death rate of hospital care. Along the way, he also teams up with a transgender woman called Rayon who then becomes his business partner, as well as a friend & practically a wife, in terms of the level of bickering between them.

This film would live or die on its performances, but this are without question the best of both actors careers. McConaughey is stunning, the weight he has lost turning him from a muscle-stacked alpha-male into a scared & cowed man who then comes out fighting. Leto, who is even thinner, plays Rayon pretty much the same, but with the added determination of a person who has already had everything life could throw at her & now gives everything to surviving as long as possible & supporting her friends. Jennifer Garner's composite character fares less well, but she still does amazing work with what she has.

This film is an inspirational joy, made even more remarkable by its tiny, nano-budget, which was so small that the wardrobe budget was only a few hundred dollars. It makes you laugh, cringe, cry; everything a masterpiece can do. And the spirit of the characters shines through. This is incredible work, brilliantly marshalled by Jean-Marc Valleé, resulting in Oscars for McConaughey & Leto. I loved this film and you will too. A magnificent celebration of courage & sheer grit when all the odds are stacked against you.

After The Fault in Our Stars and its stratospheric success, it was only a matter of time before another film attempted to jump on that bandwagon. However, this film is a mess and despite the best efforts of the cast, I switched it off after about half an hour. 

Isabella is a patient at a hospital and suffers from cystic fibrosis. She is also every painful cliche that you could hang on her character: needy, controlling, determined, looking for love ect ect. One day, she bumps into a new patient called Will who is everything she isn’t. She starts to fall in love with him and then as night follows day, she will begin to see that maybe she shouldn’t be uptight all the time and start to live, embrace love yadda yadda yadda. 

Nothing about this film really works. It is shot terribly and the script is the sort of thing you would imagine an AI programme coming up with in 10 minutes and sold to the first studio willing to throw a bunch of money at it. Whilst the 2 stars acknowledges the actor’s efforts, this film is the sort of one designed for a very niche audience, although not that niche as it did make close to $100 million off a shoestring budget. Avoid unless you are a teenage girl who wants a soapy film to stick on at a slumber party.

This film made headlines when it was released for a reason which was nothing to do with the quality or script: the fact that it had cast Chris Langham in his first role after his imprisonment for downloading child pornography. There was massive outrage from most parts of the media, but I also remember vividly something else: once the dust of the controversy settled, this film attracted stellar reviews, especially for Langham’s performance. 

It is something that does not surprise me at all. Before his disgrace, which is referenced in the beginning of the film by his character in a satirical way, Langham was at the top of his game. He was fantastic in The Thick of It and had a 20+ year comedy career, alongside being a prolific writer. When looking at him purely for his talent, he is an incredible performer. But as much as this film received huge amounts of praise, it just didn’t work for me at all. 

The cast does their best and the locations are interesting, but it just never really caught fire. I do also have to be honest and say that despite some good performances, Simon Amstell’s performance was absolute nails-down a-chalkboard. So despite a good and interesting premise plus a clearly committed cast, this was a film I started off enjoying, then lost interest and finally turned off after an hour. This was doubly sad for me because it is a micro-budget film which took an enormous effort to get made and I had hoped that this chance would result in something great. 

I wanted to like it more, but sadly just couldn’t get into it.  

I rented this film after seeing many good reviews for it, plus I always like to find something new & interesting to watch. 

This film starts out well and builds tension up nicely. Clare is holidaying in Berlin and meets charismatic Andi whilst out. She goes back to his flat for sex, then wakes up the following morning to discover that he’s left for work and locked her in. The building that she is in is totally secure and there is no way out. The first day this happens, she is slightly perturbed but lets it slide. However, it then becomes apparent that she is in fact a prisoner there and cannot escape. 

When the film first starts picking up pace, I was very interested, plus also the deep unease that it creates really affected me. But then the film just coasts and loses its way. I found myself after about 40-45 minutes just bored and getting fidgety, then switched it off a few minutes later. It was in one way quite an achievement that a film that had started this good then just nosedived. 

I may one day re-rent it and give it another shot, in which case of course I’ll update this review if I change my mind, but I cannot recommend this at the moment sadly, despite its positives. 

Back in the time when Michael Fassbender was producing a pretty much flawless catalogue of films (excluding Haywire, the less said about that, the better,) this was an interesting film. A micro-budget film about a family of gypsies, the older father wanting to control & mold his son into his image; the son looking in horror at the life he currently is living and a refusal to allow his children to go down that same path. Add into the mix an incredible cast and it looked like this was going to be something very special.

However, I just did not like this film at all. It starts off in an interesting way, showing Fassbender's character Chad taking part in a police chase after a robbery. After losing the police, he then drives back to the campsite he lives at and we are introduced to Colby, the patriarch and Chad's father. Colby is ruthless, feared and dangerous. But it is clear that soon he will start to try to exert more control over not only Chad but also his children as well. But none of it was that interesting, which is staggering considering the powerhouse of talent here.

You can see what will happen a mile away and whilst there is nothing wrong with clichés when they're done well, here I just didn't care. I absolutely do not want to and take no pleasure in slating particularly small-budget and first time films, but this could have been so much more.