R. J. Harvey

Enjoyment squared, 12 May 2013

It was writer-director Vincenzo Natali's entertaining and bizarre Splice that drew my attention to his earlier work, and this is his debut feature: a low-budget Canadian sci-fi set entirely in an enormous cube, containing a series of smaller, room-sized cubes. A group of strangers awaken with no memory of how they became trapped. They need to find a way out - except some rooms are booby-trapped. Tension, conflict and madness ensues.

Some have remarked upon the acting quality in the film, although I rather enjoyed the larger-than-life reactions of the characters. The film unashamedly embraces its own B-movie silliness. As the post-Saw horror genre has seemingly become a contest of… Read more

Deep water, 11 May 2013

After the feverish Deep South nightmares of Killer Joe and The Paperboy, here comes the calm after the storm: a relatively gentle yet not less involving rite of passage drama set upon the Mississippi. One could argue that the river is the main character, acting as both the physical location and a metaphor for the film's depiction of the human character: an unpredictable creature in a constant state of change, yet inexorably surging onward toward some kind of freedom that it mightn't yet know.

One day we'll stop going on about Matthew McConaughey's resurgence and simply accept him as the actor he always promised to be. (Perhaps this time will come when he's been fully Christopher… Read more

Superior sophomore star-hopping, 10 May 2013

J. J. Abrams' 2009 reboot was a blast of pure photon energy, replete with wicked flirty banter between Kirk (the rubber-faced Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto), and some truly memorable action set-pieces. This time around, the snappy dialogue remains, the set-pieces are less memorable, and the plotting is heavier. Overall, it avoids the tricky second album syndrome - which, as Quantum of Solace showed us, can be most pronounced after a successful reboot.

The plot this time around is suitably preposterous. After a galactic terrorist named John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) attacks Starfleet, Kirk and crew are tasked with assassinating him at his hideout upon the Klingon… Read more