The Cynical Cinephiles

Director: Christopher Nolan Cast: Finn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Barry Kroghan, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy Christopher Nolan has joined a small league of directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg whose names alone attract people to flock to the cinema in their thousands. Their attachment and involvement with any project generates immense excitement and the guarantee of an audience. With this notoriety as one of the most exciting directors of our time, Nolan continues to surprise with his recent picture - a war film concerning the true story of the Dunkirk evacuation. In May 1940, the British army have been forced to retreat to the French coast, Dunkirk, as Nazis continue to overpower mainland Europe. Over 400,000 men are stranded and, with their short route home obstructed, their chances of survival are diminishing as time passes. The British writer-director primarily operates within the ...

Director: Sofia Coppola Cast: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning Writer-director Sofia Coppola recently made history by becoming the second female director in the Cannes Film Festival's 70+ years to win the coveted Best Director gong. It's a disheartening, although not shocking, statistic but suggests that The Beguiled (an adaptation of the Thomas P. Culling novel A Painted Devil, not  a remake of Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood's 1971 film) is one of the auteur's finest pieces of work to date. After venturing beyond her advised boundaries, the young Miss Amy (Oona Laurence) stumbles across an injured Union soldier, Corporal John McBurney (Colin Farrell), who deserted his duties during the Civil War. Amy takes him back to her all-female Southern boarding school where Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman) allows him to take refuge. McBurney's presence causes titillation and excitement as the girls and women compete for his affections but sexual tensio...

Director: Jon Watts Cast: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Zendaya, Laura Harrier, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Robert Downey. Jr Within the relatively short period of seventeen years, audiences have been given three different iterations of the web-slinging Spider-Man. Raimi's early 2000s trilogy revolutionised the superhero genre. Marc Webb's efforts perhaps set the cause back a few steps. Jon Watts, director of  Cop Car (2015) and now Spider-Man: Homecoming  hopes to strike the former achievement. With the long-awaited collaboration between Disney Marvel and Sony finally upon us and age-appropriate casting of the titular character, the revival of the Spidey franchise has been imbued with a sensibility that's entirely unique and refreshing. After his thrilling experience with the Avengers, the teenage Peter Parker (Tom Holland) continues to live his quiet life but begins to embrace his identity as Spider-Man under the watchful eye of Tony Stark (Robert Downey. Jr). Determin...

Director: Edgar Wright Cast: Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Lily James, Jon Hamm, Jon Bernthal, Eiza Gonzalez, Jamie Foxx The inception of Edgar Wright's Baby Driver  began with a single song - Bellbottoms by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Fast forward a couple of decades since that lighting bolt idea and that song now features within the first few minutes of Wright's first solo effort as a writer/director and the result is a sheer, exhilarating delight. Vulnerable and talented getaway driver Baby (Ansel Elgort) serves as just that for Atlanta criminal boss Doc (Kevin Spacey). But the life of crime is not for him, and despite his adeptness behind the wheel, Baby cannot complete any job without listening to his favourite tunes to muffle his tinnitus (the consequence of a childhood accident). When he meets waitress Debora (Lily James), Baby finally envisions a life free of committing felonies, but Doc won't let him drive off into the sunset as easily as he hopes. Edgar ...

Director: Bong Joon-Ho Cast: Tilda Swinton, Ahn Seo-hyun, Paul Dano, Steven Neun, Lily Collins, Jake Gyllenhaal A competitor at Cannes, Bong Joon-Ho'd Okja  caused quite the controversy due to its Netflix distribution. Film purists abhorred the method of distribution an booed the online streaming service's logo upon its premiere screening, but critics were soon swallowing their jeers and turning them into vocals of assent in support of the picture. However, the reality that has been shrouded by the fierce debate is simple;  Okja  is a great film. In South Korea, a bold young girl named Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun) enjoys a peaceful and idyllic existences with her genetically modified 'superpig' Okja, her loyal companion. When the mastermind behind Okja, Miranda Corporation CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton) demands the creature's return to America for a PR stunt, Mija and a group of animal activists fight for her freedom. Director and co-writer Bong Joon-Ho captures a v...

Director: Alex Kurtzman Starring: Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson, Russell Crowe, Sofia Boutella The decision to reinvent an –admittedly not highly celebrated – but nonetheless popular movie franchise is oftentimes understandably unwelcome. We anticipated a worthy reason when it was decided to reboot the Brendan Fraser starring movies, themselves a loose remake of the 1932 horror film of the same name, we could only hope it would bring an innovative new spin on the film’s subject, or perhaps an exploration into a previously untouched subplot, or hell, just a better godamn version. Alas, Alex Kurtzman’s The Mummy is none of these things. Alex Kurtzman’s The Mummy is lousy. The plot follows audacious soldier Nick Morton (Cruise) who seeks out ancient relics and sells them for a cash reward. Joined by partner Chris Vail (Johnson) they stumble upon the tomb of an Egyptian princess (Boutella). Archaeologist Jennifer Halsey (Wallis), embittered following a sour romant...