Atomic Blonde is a thrill ride offering up stylish and brutal fight scenes for an entertaining ultra-violent film alongside a complex story.
Charlize Theron plays Lorraine Broughton, an elite spy in the MI6 who is sent to Berlin during the cold war to retrieve a list of undercover operatives. While she is there she partners up with David Percival (James McAvoy) who helps her navigate through the destabalising city and its dangerous game of spies.
As we see Lorraine Broughton continuously exhausted throughout, she begins to trust no one and we too feel the same, in an unknown place to her with unknown people around she is spat into the middle of a threatening city full of spies wanting her dead from every angle, from the British to the Russians to the Americans to even the French. Charlize Theron is badass in this, she takes no sh*t at all and gives the character of Lorraine an interesting look that makes her intriguing, she commands the screen at all times and gives a brilliant performance. Alongside her James McAvoy is seriously entertaining as well as Sofia Boutella, although arguably underused.
The story can be somewhat complex with twists and turns as well as a non-linear structure, furthermore the plot is seen in many other spy films and so is nothing new, therefore you are never really surprised or kept on edge, ultimately you know what is going to happen, moreover there are what feels like numerous endings too, which wasn’t achieved all too well. Additionally, the movie doesn’t expand on any of the characters as much as it should, we are interested but left without any knowledge of who they really are.
With David Leitch (John Wick, Deadpool 2) directing it was certain you were going to get one thing out of this film and that was brutal and awesome fight scenes and this film does not disappoint. Similar to John Wick the film does not focus on quick-cut editing to hide the poor fighting, instead the film orchestrates brilliant choreography that throws up vicious punching, kicking, stabbing and shooting. The film also conjures up a specific fight scene that travels from a staircase to the roads of Berlin that seem never-ending (in a good way) similar to Daredevil’s fantastic one-shot fights, it is a completely magnificent scene that is the best in the whole film.
Accompanying the fight scenes is Jonathan Sela’s stylish and slick cinematography, which captures East Berlin as a dull, and West Berlin as energetic. The lighting and colours are vibrant throughout; they strike at you even in the dullest of places adding to the setting and characterisation, accomplishing some beautiful shots. However what also accompanies the scenes are 80’s pop music hits, as some sort of juxtaposition, we have seen this is other films where it works incredibly well but for Atomic Blonde it falls flat, the music just doesn’t bring anything to the story or the fight scenes.
Overall, the film’s action sequences are fun, ruthless and fantastic and the film is beautifully shot, unfortunately it falls short with its story, unmotivated, predictable and complicated you may start to not care about it.
Known as the “King of Rock and Roll” Elvis Presley is a name known by most.
Today marks 40 years since the legendary singer and actor Elvis Presley has passed away due to heart attack. Elvis passed away on the 16th of August, 1977 in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S aged 42.
He was born on 8th of January, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S. He grew to fame with his song ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ and grew ever since. Over his career, he won 3 Grammy awards and acted in films such as ‘Jailhouse Rock’ (1957) and ‘Love Me Tender’ (1956).
Many fans took to social media to express their thoughts and feelings.
Here is a guide to help you choose the right frame for yourself or your man and some recommendations of frames to try out!
Getting the right frame for your face shape can be difficult if you don’t know the basic guide. Some frames help complement different face shapes, they can be applied to both sunglasses or glasses. If you wanted to go for an extravagant frame shape then i would leave that for the sunglasses.
Square Shape
A squared shaped face is a defined face. You have definition from the forehead to the cheeks to the jawline. The best frame to get is something with curves, you have enough structure and definition to the face therefore something angular may seem too much. Having curved frames helps to flaunt those strong features. The best frames to look into would be oval, round and pilot. Ralph Lauren glasses can be found here.
An Oval shaped face is a well balanced face. The chin is slightly narrower than the forehead. Since the face is well balanced any frame would suit you, it is just the case of experimenting and trying on which frame you prefer. Just ideas of frames to look into are oval, rectangle , wayfarer or even round.
A heart shaped face usually has a broad forehead with the jawline and chin being narrow creating an illusion of a heart shape. The best frames to look out for is something that elongates the face giving a balanced look to the face. Some frames to look into are semi-rimless, round, pilot and rimless.
A round shaped face is when the length and width of the face is usually similar. The best frames to look our for are angular and geometric frames. Geometric frames doesn’t mean it will be something crazy so don’t worry. These frames help elongate the face but also create illusions of contours to the face. Here are some ideas of frames you may want to look into oval, rectangle and wayfarer.
After some speculation, Daniel Craig has confirmed that he will play James Bond once again.
In an interview with Stephen Colbert on the Late Show, Daniel Craig revealed that he will be playing James Bond once again. According to Craig, he has known for a couple of months that he will be playing the role of James Bond and has said that he wants to “go out on a high note”.
Previously, there was some confusion for the fans of James Bond, as many news outlets have hinted for others to take the role and no official news were released. Also, back in 2015, Craig controversially stated that he would rather “slash his wrists” than be James Bond again, however later apologised in a statement for his own words.
For the 25th time, the renowned film festival Raindance will be showcasing and discovering talent from across the globe.
Today at the programme launch of Raindance Film Festival, founder Elliot Grove announced the exciting line-up for the 25th Raindance film festival alongside actor Jamie Campbell Bower.
The festival will open up with Atsuko Hirayanagi’s ‘Oh Lucy!’ starring Josh Hartnett and will screen over 200 projects in total including features, shorts, web series, VR and music videos.
As usual, certain films will be competing for prizes in categories such as: Best Debut, Best UK Feature, Best Documentary Feature and In Competition International Feature Films just to name a few. Several international films that will be competing are ‘Maya Dardel’ by Zachary Cotler and Magdalena Zyzak, ‘Mukoku’ by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri and ‘The Constitution’ by Rajko Grlc.
Furthermore, the festival’s jury members have been announced, among some of the names are Jack O’Connell, Sean Bean, Christopher Eccleston, Ewen Bremner and Jamie Campbell Bower.
Raindance film festival will start on the 20th of September and end on the 1st of October. Films will be screened at Vue cinema in Leicester Square, London.
While Kimi no Na Wa stole the show in the Asian box office in 2016, Koe no Katachi was silently brilliant. A hard hitting, multi-layered story of redemption told beautifully through excellent directing, writing and sound design.
A young and bored Shoya Ishida (Mayu Matsuoka) and his elementary school classmates gasp at the arrival of the new transfer student Shouko Nishimiya (Saori Hayami) when they discover that she is hearing impaired. While she is welcomed at first and met with curiosity, Nishimiya’s classmates soon grow tired of having to adjust for her disability. Ishida and his classmates start to bully Nishimiya for being different, targeting not only her but those who try and get close to her. A complaint is made to the school regarding the disappearance of several expensive hearing aids belonging to Nishimiya, at which point the entire class turns on Ishida, blaming him for all the bullying despite taking part themselves. As a result of the bullying, Nishimiya transfers away, and Ishida is made the new target. After years of being ostracized through the rest of elementary school and middle school, Ishida (Miyu Irino) has become a loner who is unable to look anyone in the eye. Ishida then decides to try and find Nishimiya to make amends for all of the sins committed by his younger self.
Released in September of 2016, Koe no Katachi (officially called A Silent Voice in English but more accurately translated as The Shape of Voice) received very positive reviews but due to the hype generated by Kimi no Na Wa (Your Name), also released in 2016, the film did not get as much recognition as it deserves. Based on an original award-winning manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Yoshitoki Ōima, Koe no Katachi was produced by popular Japanese animation studio Kyoto Animation and was directed by Naoko Yamada, with this being her third film as the chief director.
Yamada’s direction of the film was truly excellent and fitting of the themes that were addressed, constantly showing character emotion through body language and eye movements in a story where one of the main characters can mostly only communicate through pen and paper with others around her. The fact that Yamada often opts to not focus on character’s faces also aligns with how Ishida is unable to look others in the eye, often looking down or trying to avert his gaze when talking to people around him. The backgrounds are always lovely to look at while also containing much information, for example, there is also a consistent use of flower language throughout the film, with each appearance representing a character’s feelings or personality in that scene. The koi fish that appear during the bridge scenes also carry meaning, symbolising Ishida, Nishimiya and the rest of the group. There is also the symbolism in the x’s over the faces of others from Ishida’s perspective representing his outcast status, although credit for this goes to Ōima as this was an element present in the manga. Characters on screen are almost never still, which brings life to each scene, for example during a dialogue between Ishida and his mother, Ishida is also attending to his niece, helping her by lifting her out her chair and onto the ground, while his mother cooks breakfast. In recent years, I’ve seen many animated scenes where everyone in the frame would stand still as only their mouths would move. This can make for visually dull viewing and can make what are meant to be interesting or intense scenes boring to watch if the writing is not good enough. Instead Yamada provides aesthetically pleasing animation to match the brilliant writing of Yoshitoki Ōima.
With pleasing and symbolic visuals and great writing to support, Kensuke Ushio provides a soundtrack and score to match the soft and melancholy nature of much of the film while becoming almost erratic in some of the darker and more intense scenes. The use of silence at many times throughout the film is also well done as it was often used to give perspective to how Nishimiya hears things. Overall the sound design always supported the visuals perfectly, even if the upbeat music over some of the elementary school bullying seemed a bit out of place, however I think that the music in that montage represented how the children didn’t see the bad things in their actions, rather than just being in bad taste.
To label Koe no Katachi as a film centred on the potential romance between the two main characters would be wrong. This film tells a beautiful multi-layered story that comments on many topics, ranging from childhood bullying and growing up with a disability in Japan to teenage politics and suicide. Romance is an element of the film, but for most of its runtime, it takes a backseat to this hard-hitting story of redemption.
While risky to appoint the bully as the protagonist of the film, it actually ends up working remarkably well. Ishida did terrible things to Nishimiya in elementary school, some things that can be considered unforgivable, which at first can make you struggle to sympathise with the character, I mean who in their right mind would want to see a boy who bullied a disabled girl out of his school succeed in whatever goal he sets himself if he sets any at all. Yet as the film keeps running we see him receive karma for his actions and in turn, he becomes a loner as a result. We are also shown that he himself believes that he doesn’t deserve a chance at happiness and that he hates his younger self for the sins he committed. All of this, along with how hard he tries to make Nishimiya happy, makes the audience want to root for him, despite his past we want this reformed version of Ishida to find happiness. Nishimiya herself isn’t without fault as well, as by holding in her emotions and keeping a smile on throughout all the bullying she isn’t letting those bullying her realise their wrongdoing. Her innocence and want to not be a burden on others also leads to her isolation in the classroom. These characters are more complex than the label of bully and victim, there is so much more going on and the fact that there isn’t a simple answer to this problem alongside the many other issues present throughout the film makes it feel all the more real and relatable. In fact, Rie Saito, a Japanese politician who lost her hearing at the age of one and is a prominent member of the deaf community in Tokyo, suggested in an interview that the film be shown in schools to young children to not only teach them about hearing disability but to also better educate on the effects of bullying. All of the characters in this story have flaws that make them seem very human, so watching them interact with each other is fun to watch when things are going well while also being tough to sit through when relationships start to get rocky.
If there are any flaws in this film, most come down to the fact that much was cut from the original source material in order to fit the story into feature film length. The absence of the goal of coming together to create a film makes the forming of the group kind of feel like it’s come out of nowhere, however this does not distract too much from the plot. Many scenes with Satoshi Mashiba (Toshiyuki Toyonaga) were also cut which is a shame as it made Mashiba feel almost out of place in the film with no real reason to be there. This brings up the point that this story might have been better off being adapted into a TV series instead, however as a standalone film it works brilliantly and while much was cut from the source material the key elements of Ōima’s story are still present. These are flaws that only really matter to avid fans of the manga, those who chose to watch the film on its own will still be moved by the story and how well it is told.
To conclude, Koe no Katachi is an excellent film featuring beautiful and lively visuals, a soothing soundtrack and strong writing that touches upon many real life issues. Therefore, I would highly recommend it to anyone regardless of whether they are fans of anime or just general viewers.
Latest box office horror film ‘Anabelle: Creation’ has topped the Box Office after netting an impressive $35 million.
Whilst it was originally scheduled to be released on 19th of May, 2017 it was instead moved to be released on the 11th of August to avoid any competition with ‘Alien: Covenant’. As it seems, the distributors have made the correct decision to move the film as it netted an impressive $35 million domestically. The fourth film in the Conjuring franchise is looking to profit widely as it has already broken the modest budget of $15 million with an estimated worldwide turnover of $71 million.
The film is still to be released in many territories worldwide including Argentina, Israel, Germany and India. The film is directed by David F. Sandberg who also directed ‘Lights Out’ (2016) which made $148 million worldwide.
Sonia Alins is a Spanish based artist/illustrator who creates an inventive series of cut-out illustrations.
Her ability to utilize materials and create a layering effect in a subtle yet crafty way brilliantly depicts the inventive nature of her craft. Her work has thus been awarded a Bronze A’ Design Award in the Arts, Crafts and Ready-Made Design Category (2016-2017).
Master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock is still regarded as one of the best film directors of all time.
Alfred Hitchcock was born on the 13th of August, 1899 in Leytonstone, England and died on the 29th of April, 1980. He started his career as a title card designer and soon moved through the ranks to become a film director. Known for pioneering techniques that developed the art of suspense, Hitchcock became a household name to many filmmakers and film fanatics around the world. Some of the great films he has directed are ‘Psycho’ (1960), ‘Vertigo’ (1958), and ‘North by Northwest (1959).
To celebrate his work and birthday we have selected four great scenes that defined his work to many and made him the ‘Master of Suspense’.
We are excited to present our 7th Sound Selection. Once again selected a range of music that will be great for any playlist.
Noah Slee ‘Radar’
Latest single ‘Radar’ by the wonderful Noah Slee is truly splendid. The song takes inspiration from acts such as Disclosure, but rather than copy them Noah Slee elevates certain elements and creates his own level. This one is for the playlists.
SAILE ‘Dreaming Of’
Now, if you are looking for something hopeful and dream-like, ‘Dreaming Of’ by SAILE is just the song for you. It features smooth vocals and great production that go hand in hand. Truly a lovely and romantic song to have in your playlists.
Dresage ‘Center’
Quirky, groovy and simply refreshing. ‘Center’ by Dresage is a wonderful song that combines melancholic-like vocals with electronic glitch elements in the smoothest way possible. Not surprisingly it puts Dresage on the list of names to watch out in the years to come.
Kit Walker ‘Mr Wright’
Another groovy track is ‘Mr Wright’ by the Indie-Pop project Kit Walker. It maintains great structure, energy and a vibe that will last with you for weeks to come. Catchy, smooth and a must for any playlist. A great addition to the genre of Indie Pop.
Jackson Breit ‘Wouldn’t Change a Thing’
Now for something more commercial but just as groovy. ‘Wouldn’t Change a Thing’ is a splendid song by Jackson Breit who showcases his gifted vocals. Thi song keeps the summer vibe going on and on. Truly refreshing music that has also been given a vibrant music video to alongside it.
John F. Hennessy x tokay ‘Forget It’
Dynamic and truly terrific would be a couple ways to describe ‘Forget It’ by the promising John F.Hennessy x Tokay. This track has some lovely dynamics that develop throughout the song by combining a range of synths, truly stunning music by an electronic project that has a lot more coming.
Three Laws ‘Siren Song’
Powerful, angelic and purely jaw dropping. ‘Siren Song’ by Three Laws is one of the most authentic releases of 2017, truly great work by a project that has many great things coming to them. This one is for the playlists.
Everything Everything ‘Can’t Do’
The groove is back in our selection with ‘Can’t Do’ by the fantastic Everything Everything. If you are looking for something that will cheer you up but also get you in the mood for more great music, ‘Can’t Do’ will be for you. Everything Everything is a project to follow, for sure.
lolite ‘Ring Of Fire’
Artists like lolite only come around now and then, with her latest single ‘Ring Of Fire’ we see just why. ‘Ring Of Fire’ is a dynamic song that takes you on a journey through different emotions and tempos, just what a great song should do.
Le Youth ‘Clap Your Hands’ feat. Ava Max
Our final selected song is ‘Clap Your Hands’ a single by the beloved Le Youth featuring Ava Max. It combines stunning production, groovy elements and splendid vocals that is great for that weekend playlist.