Lights in the sky

At First Light (2018)

Directed by Jason Stone this film stars Stefanie Scott, Theodore Pellerin and Said Tagmaoui. Teenage boy pines for a teenage girl who has a near death experience and gets powers from aliens.

To be honest there is a little too much mystery and not enough substance to this film but it is still a fairly decent watch. The plot rumbles along nicely but never really offers us much of a conclusion more just a number of familiar elements. There are some decent performances but there is nothing very remarkable about this film.

3/5

At the beach

Shell Life (1984)

Directed by Al Jarnow this is an animated short film. We see various shells dance about on the sand.

Simple in concept but a good example of stop motion animation. There are a couple of clever little bits but generally this is a fairly entertaining short. While there is no great depth to this piece it is still a fun watch.

3/5

Warped view of mental illness

Distorted (2018)

Directed by Robert W. King this film stars Christina Ricci, John Cusack and Brendan Fletcher. A couple move into a state of the art tower block but the wife who struggles with being bipolar believes the building owners are trying to brainwash her.

I really hate that this is one of those lazy films that implies the mentally ill should believe their delusions. The plot does not really make sense and does not have enough time to play itself out. To be honest the whole thing is a pretty weak effort.

1/5

Sounds familiar

The Music of Silence (2017)

Directed by Michael Radford this film based on the semi autobiographical novel of the same name stars Toby Sebastian, Luisa Ranieri, Jordi Molla and Antonio Banderas. An Italian boy finds out he will go blind but dreams of being an opera singer.

Fairly bland in plot this film is probably one just for fans of Bocelli. It is hard to say the story really ever hits any dramatic beats or has any climax of conflict. Some of the accents also raise eyebrows occasionally.

2/5

Relegation candidate

The Bromley Boys (2018)

Directed by Steve Kelly this film stars Brenock O'Connor, Martine McCutcheon and Alan Davies. Following the 1966 world cup a fifteen year old misfit decides to start supporting his local football club.

There is no doubt a really good film to be made about the charm of supporting part time football teams but sadly this film is not it. The plot here is just too contrived and heavy handed. It is hard to take any part of this film seriously, the script needed more work.

2/5

working together

Bench (1980)

Directed by Al Jarnow this is a simple animated film. Two characters must learn to work together to build a bench they can both sit on.

Very simple in terms of concept and execution this is still a decent little short from Jarnow. Not the director's best work but still watchable. One for younger kids.

3/5

The most modern of mysteries

Searching (2018)

Directed by Aneesh Chaganty this film stars John Cho and Debra Messing. Through computer screens we see the events that follow a 16 year old girl going missing.

I really love the way this story is told, the film really cracks showing the inside of someone's life and the electronic world we live in today. About the only complaint I have with the film is the twist in the end which makes the film a little less believable. All in all this film does a great job of telling a familiar story in a very different, modern way.

4/5