Netflix proves that they are completely tuned into the complex nature of today’s generation, as well as their relationship with technology and how it is ruling the lives of the everyday person.

Emma Watson stars as Mae Holland, a woman who feels she is wasting away in her current job. She is then contacted by her friend Annie Allerton (Karen Gillan) who offers her a job at The Circle, an incredibly influential and powerful technology company, an obvious reference to the current position that Apple holds in the real world. After accepting this position, we see Mae go about her everyday life in The Circle, it seems inviting, relaxed, almost like a university campus. In a full company-wide meeting we meet Eamon Bailey (Tom Hanks), the head of The Circle who goes on to introduce a new camera technology called SeeChange; pinball sized cameras that can be placed/hidden anywhere in the world. This introduces us to the ongoing mission of The Circle, to make the world more “transparent”. At a company party, Mae meets Ty (John Boyega), who reveals himself to be Ty Lafitte, the creator of True You; a massively popular product produced by The Circle. Along with his introduction, Ty takes Mae to an underground, restricted area of The Circle and warns her of the potentially dark direction that The Circle is taking, hence why someone as famous as he is decided to work in from shadows. After a traumatic experience whilst out kayaking displays Mae’s face to the world through SeeChange, Mae decides to become the first person to become “Fully transparent”; she will wear a webcam at all available times, giving the world access to her life. She goes on to praise transparency as the way forward for the world. Whilst she views The Circle and “Transparency” as an overall good, Mae makes strides with the company, eventually resulting in her being pushed away by her parents, her friends and Annie. A new project, headed up by Mae, is presented at another company meeting; She says that through the SeeChange cameras, The Circle can find anyone in under 20 minutes, which she then tests on an escaped criminal. After the criminal is caught in just 10 minutes and 21 seconds, the crowds demand that Mae uses it to find Mercer (Ellar Coltrane), a childhood friend who earlier in the film was ridiculed and threatened for making chandeliers from Antlers, despite having defended himself. The hunt for Mercer ends in him driving off a bridge after a drone blocks his view of the road. Mae then secludes herself from the world after witnessing this, using the time to reconnect with her parents and Annie. Mae then returns to The Circle but now she has a mission, she contacts Ty and tricks Eamon and Tom Stenton (Patton Oswald) another company head, into letting her go out on stage in front of the entire company. Mae then proceeds to invite Eamon and Tom to go fully transparent with her, which leads to secret accounts and information being distributed to the world, exactly what Mae had planned. At the end of the film, we see Mae embracing transparency, openly welcoming some drones that are following her kayaking.

As soon as I was introduced to The Circle, I found my views on cyber-privacy being constantly questioned. My moral and ethical views about sharing my personal life online were repeatedly flipping back and forth from “I’d be perfectly comfortable with this” to “I’d never expose myself like that”. Any film that can make me re-evaluate my own views is obviously a powerful piece of cinema.

With technology companies like Apple being as influential as they are in the current generation, The Circle provides a completely transparent view of how the average person’s life can be controlled and monitored through a misguided dedication to the latest technology trends. I believe it also touches on the leaking of information by Edward Snowden in 2013, with characters like Eamon and Tom representing what a spying government could look like if they’d combined themselves with the popularity of a technology company, thus fooling the masses into abandoning privacy for the sake of being part of a hive-mind demographic. Also, the character of Ty Lafitte being quite a close draw from Snowden himself, but this time deciding to reveal the truth through the Mae due to his position in the company.

The performances greatly benefit this controversial story, with Emma Watson leading the pack with an easily relatable Mae, who provides a perfect window for the audience whilst also posing a position that is the perfect debate point. Tom Hanks once again knocks it out of the park with the loveable company head, constantly making jokes and being a lovable father figure for the whole company but he perfectly incorporates the smallest amount of mistrust that feeds that all important “little voice in the back of your head” that we hear about so much

No matter how many people may fear that Netflix is taking over from the world of the cinema-goer, I thoroughly believe that they’ve tapped into the same appeal that Black Mirror had in 2011; the dark realism that the audience know is real but never want to admit it, it almost borders on a guilty pleasure. The proof? Black mirror series 3 & 4, Okja and now The Circle

To summarise, The Circle is yet another powerful step that Netflix has taken towards being the visual medium to represent a whole new phase in political, technological and social evolution.

With the charisma of Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson at the forefront of this film, The Hitman’s Bodyguard is entertaining but flawed in its unoriginality and cliché.

When elite ‘AAA-rated’ bodyguard Michael Bryce is hired to protect Takashi Kurosawa his world falls apart when the job doesn’t go the way he wanted. Now, two years later Bryce is struggling to get by, disgraced and having to protect drug filled corporate executives this is the lowest point in Bryce’s life. Meanwhile, notorious hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) agrees to testify against the bloodthirsty dictator of Belarus, Vladislav Dukhovich (Gary Oldman) in exchange for the release of his wife, Sonia Kincaid (Salma Hayek) from prison. After the escort of Kincaid is ambushed, Amelia Roussel (Élodie Yung) now knowing that Interpol is distrustful calls her ex-boyfriend Bryce for help, distastefully, Bryce agrees. However on arrival we find out that Bryce and Kincaid have been enemies for years with Kincaid trying to kill Bryce 28 times. This causes a rocky road for Bryce as he is now a bodyguard for the hitman in an attempt to escort him safely to his testimony.

Action Comedies can often produce incredible amounts of on-screen fun if done right, recent ones include: Hot Fuzz, 21 Jump Street, Tropic Thunder, The Other Guys and The Nice Guys. All those films have one thing in common and that’s great chemistry between the two main characters, this is what drives the movie along. Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson are two great actors and they bounce off each other well here.

Reynolds character is sensible and always thinks ‘Boring is best’, he thinks carefully before he does, and does his job cleanly and professionally. Whereas Samuel L. Jacksons character is the opposite, he wants to go in all guns blazing, life is fun to him, thinking too much is boring, this is the way he has always gone in his life and he’s not changing anytime soon. The opposing character personality keeps the exchange of dialogue amusing and the chemistry successful.

The film is packed full of action and for the most part it’s fine, it is easy to follow and keeps you entertained but lacks variety and is nothing new, you are not going to leave and recall how great any of the action scenes were. Furthermore, the plot is recycled; it is not going to amaze you and is rather predictable. Gary Oldman’s Dukhovich is rarely on screen, which is a shame; it feels like Oldman’s performance is wasted and underused, it could have really contrasted the comedy further.

With a clichéd plot, effortless action and underused characters, the only thing keeping The Hitman’s Bodyguard from sinking is a normal amount of Jackson saying “Motherfucker” and Reynold’s comedy talent.

Overtaking Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away as the highest grossing Japanese animated film to date is Makoto Shinkai’s latest film Kimi no Na wa or also known as Your Name, a fun and emotional teen body swap story between a city boy in Tokyo and a country girl in the remote fictional town of Itomori.

Mitsuha (Mone Kamishiraishi) is school girl living in Itomori, a remote town in the Hida mountains, who spends her days going to school and tending to the family shrine. She’s bored and hates living in a small town in the middle of nowhere, exclaiming to the sky to make her a “handsome Tokyo boy in her next life”. Taki (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is a city boy living in Tokyo who spends his time between school, cafes and working at an Italian restaurant, while also struggling to make anything of his crush on his work colleague Okudera (Masami Nagasawa). At some point in time (as the film never makes it clear as to when) Mitsuha and Taki start to body swap on different days every week. At first, they assume the experiences to be dreams but they soon realise the reality of the situation when friends and family speak of how they have been acting strangely recently. The two begin to communicate through messages left in notepads, on their arms and faces and in the phones. While in Mitsuha’s body Taki increases her popularity in school while also experiencing the beauty of the town of Itomori, while when Mitsuha is in Taki’s body she indulges in extravagant food and desserts while getting things going between Taki and Okudera. They learn about each other through these experiences as the film builds up to the event of the comet passing overhead in the night sky.

Officially released in Japan on the 26^th August 2016, Kimi no Na wa (which translates to Your Name in English) received heaps of praise as one of the best animated films to ever come out of Japan. Upon the release of the film, Makoto Shinkai has been hailed as the ‘next Miyazaki’. However, this shouldn’t be taken as Shinkai becoming a copy of the famous director as his own style of using gorgeous looking animation shines through in Kimi no Na wa as well as in his previous works such as 5 Centimetres Per Second and The Garden of Words (fun fact: the Italian restaurant Taki works at in the film is called ‘Giardino delle Parole’ which translates to The Garden of Words in Italian, a reference to his previous work).

Visually the film is stunning, so much so that most frames of the film could be taken out and hung up on the wall like a painting, especially in scenes showing the beauty of Itomori. When Taki stares in awe at the lake surrounded by the Hida mountains, the beauty and detail of the scenery allow us to stare in awe with him. It’s not just the scenery in the countryside that holds this amount of detail either; we also experience a different kind of beauty in the bright and lively city of Tokyo, watching the city lights dim as the sun rises between the skyscrapers. However, the most stunning shots in the film can be seen when the comet flies overhead as the night sky is filled with colour. Seeing all of this on the big screen will leave you speechless. This film is visually stunning in more ways than just the scenery though, as can be seen in the animation of the kuchikamizake ritual performed at the shrine by Mitsuha and her younger sister Yotsuha (Kanon Tani), who I should mention is one of the most adored members of the cast for those who have seen the film. There is also a magnificent hand drawn cell animated sequence later in the film which to go into too much detail about would spoil the events of the story.

The music in the film composed by J-rock band Radwimps has been criticized by some for feeling out of place and in some cases ruining scenes, however I think that the pop music suits the themes of the film perfectly as it captured the essence of teenage drama while getting you dancing in your seat when upbeat and close to tearing up in the more emotional moments. The music by Radwimps gives the film life and gives it a unique feeling that makes it stand out from the crowd. It’s different from what we’d usually see in Japanese animated films, but it works. The sound design was also stellar, overall the film looks and sounds great.

In terms of what we come to know about each character, we learn much about Mitsuha and her past while not much is known about Taki’s past, for example the absence of his mother is never explained, but this is not something that really affects the narrative, as much of Taki’s story takes place within the film. While most of the focus is on the two main characters Mitsuha and Taki, the supporting cast is given just enough screen time to still feel relevant, and seeing the interactions between the friends and family of Taki and Mitsuha when they’ve been body swapped is both humorous and entertaining. This isn’t just another teen body swap film either, as what I’ve described so far is only under half of the film’s plot, as the story takes a very unexpected turn after the first third of the film, using the body swap trope in a very unique and interesting way.

The only negatives the film has are very few and can mostly be seen as nit-picking, for example, there are some jokes throughout the film that kind of require a very basic understanding of the Japanese language and culture, so if you’ve seen much Japanese animated films and shows before you’re more likely to understand certain jokes and references, however seeing as this is a Japanese film this can hardly be seen as a fault. There are arguably also some plot holes in regard to the later parts of the film but these are very minor and they don’t distract from the narrative.

To summarise, Makoto Shinkai’s Kimi no Na wa is a blast. Entertaining, emotional and so much fun all the way to the end. The film is full of stunning visuals of beautiful landscapes accompanied by an energetic pop soundtrack that feels very refreshing and unique. I would highly recommend this film to anyone and I also suggest that it is best watched on the big screen to truly appreciate the visual experience this film provides.

Released on the 50^th Anniversary of the event, Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit is a powerful and upsetting American period crime drama that puts into light the horrors of the 1967 Detroit riots that occurred as well as having an important contemporary relevance to it.

July 23^rd, 1967 and we open on a police raid on an unlicensed club, an angry mob begin to form, throwing rocks at the police, looting stores and starting fires creating the start of the 12^th Street Riot. With growing riots unable to be controlled the National Guard and paratroopers are sent in. Meanwhile, The Dramatics are set to perform at a music hall, however this is halted due to the rioting, crushing the dreams of the band and especially their lead singer Larry Reed (Algee Smith). After their bus is attacked, Larry and his friend Fred end up at the Algiers Motel, renting a room for the night. They meet two girls Julie Ann and Karen who introduce them to their friends Carl Cooper and Aubrey Pollard. Melvin Dismukes (John Boyega) is a private security guard protecting a grocery store where he meets some guardsmen, Carl decides to fire several blanks in the direction of the troops who think it is a sniper, they fire back and eventually go to the motel. Dismukes, the troops and a detachment of police led by Krauss (Will Poulter) arrive at the motel, rounding up everybody in the motel and lining them up against the wall where Krauss continuously asks with aggression and brutality, where is the weapon?

We’ve seen in The Hurt Locker that Bigelow is an incredible director, who can bring a huge amount of tension to the screen that not many others can do, we are given a grand picture of the start of the riots and the effects it has from the beginning of the film, slowly we are drawn from multiple stories down to this one event at the Algiers motel, a significant and dark moment in the riots and America that now, 50 years later is revised onto the big screen.

This film is garnered with incredible performances, highlighting Poulter who plays a racist, horrible and sickening officer, brutally humiliating, toying and beating the men and women, creating a horror for the characters and the situation they are in, forcing them to pray, forcing them to look at dead bodies and forcing them to deny the truth. Algee Smith excellently captures the loss he goes through and the traumatism he encounters at the hands of the three police. Boyega is brilliant as he is caught up in a situation he has no control over, due to the calamitous event neither the police nor the suspects have confidence him, seeming like a lost man we question what he can do and what he will do.

Vigorously edited and shot handheld documentary style, we get a full idea of the race-hate setting, and strain the suspects and officers are feeling, we are put right in the middle of beatings and we know everything that is going on. Bigelow makes the film feel like a time bomb that is about to go off, ticking and waiting for the police or the suspects to do something.

As the film breathes in the 3^rd act we are somewhat able to relax and take in the aftermath in a courtroom drama that is sure to shock you and send chills down your spine. In current times where police brutality is constant and spoken about on social media this movie speaks volume to it, 50 years on and we could question has anything changed? Although unsure if this is what Bigelow was aiming for, the film regardless has existing themes that matter today.

Detroit features great performances, script, editing and direction that creates a terrifying dramatic film which hops from starting out as a documentary to a horror to a courtroom drama concluding into a gripping and effective film that could well possibly be in for award season.