Blog | Film Reviews & Movie Trailers

Bigger Dolls short film

Nov 28, 2018
3 min

Bigger Dolls short film

★★★★ Directed by: #BarbaraSpevack Written by: Barbara Spevack Starring: Barbara Spevack Short Film Review by: #RachelPullen Trauma, trauma we all have trauma, and the most important thing is that we deal with it at the right time, in the right way, i.e. when it happens and with a licensed mental professional. Not by eating 40 chicken nuggets on a children’s swing set alone in Glasgow. This is something that Norma (played by Barbara Spevack) has not employed in her life, for h

Discount Codes for Film Festivals in the UK

May 9, 2018
2 min

Discount Codes for Film Festivals in the UK

Film Festivals > Features Part of our love of indie films at UK Film Review, we like to showcase some of the best UK Film Festivals and promote their upcoming events. One of the ways we do this is to partner with the organisers and offer to promote their film festival to our audience of film lovers and filmmakers. This is great content for our readers anyway and we like to work with the industry to help them out. Often, we offer to promote their submissions page to our list o

The Letter Red indie film

Apr 29, 2018
2 min

The Letter Red indie film

★★★ Directed by: Joston Theney Starring: Edward Gusts, Arielle Brachfeld and Melissa Mars. Indie Film Review by: Annie Vincent Theney and Gusts’ latest offering is The Letter Red, an update of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, which brings our protagonists, John and Jane Macbeth, into 21st century America. Following a tragic miscarriage, they have just moved into a house they cannot really afford, but such is their ambition and their confidence in the promise of promotion that John has

Between a Rock and a Hard Place short film

Feb 1, 2018
2 min

Between a Rock and a Hard Place short film

Directed by Alastair Gourlay Written by Emilio Iasiello and Alastair Gourlay Starring Clive Russell and Scott Reid Short Film Review by Euan Franklin It’s always fun to watch established genres twisted by British filmmakers. Although Westerns and gangster pictures are universal, they can’t escape their popular origins in Hollywood. The acclaimed director Shane Meadows even threw his own spin on the Western genre with Dead Men’s Shoes, made with a social-realist tone. Director

The Director: A Comedy About Homelessness short film

Jan 15, 2018
2 min

The Director: A Comedy About Homelessness short film

Directed by Patrick Ireland Written by Sam Wise and Patrick Ireland Starring Mark Keegan and Patrick Ireland Short Film Review by Euan Franklin You can’t expect to walk in a city like London and not be struck by the issue of homelessness. More than 300,000 people are homeless in the UK, 8000 of whom reside on the streets of London. Roll up Patrick Ireland, the creative director of Shout Out UK – a political website for the youth of today. In his mockumentary short The Directo

Not for Me short film

Jan 10, 2018
3 min

Not for Me short film

Directed by Christian Hutchins and Jacob Thompson Written by Jacob Thompson Starring Joseph Shaver, Hannah Tippit Short Film Review by Euan Franklin The student film is a unique form that encourages fear, trembling, and fun. The arrogance mixed with the youthful lack of experience gives us something deformed, unfinished – to the point where these become conventions. Accordingly, this new short film from co-directors Christian Hutchins and Jacob Thompson is about as convention

Interview with Michelle Crane

Feb 17, 2017
4 min

Interview with Michelle Crane

Interview by Chris Olson Having recently interviewed the director of Woodfalls, I was also lucky enough to interview one the indie film's actors - Michelle Crane. In her exclusive interview for UK Film Review, we discuss representing travelers culture, Greta Gerwig, and the getting out of her comfort zone. Can you tell us a bit about your acting career thus far, and specifically in Woodfalls? Woodfalls has definitely been a highlight for me. Working on Woodfalls instantly fel

Survivor short film

Apr 20, 2016
3 min

Survivor short film

Directed by Dan Tonkin Starring Emma Richardson, John Robbins & Justin K Hayward Short film review by Chris Olson The role of the audience member has never been so pivotal than in this short film Survivor, written, produced, directed and edited by Dan Tonkin, in which crucial moments of the plot are decided by the viewer. Using the most modern of features, YouTube annotations, audience members are encouraged to select the direction in which the film will go depending on a “de

The Pearl Button

Apr 16, 2016
2 min

The Pearl Button

★★★ Directed by Patricio Guzmán Starring Patricio Guzmán, Raúl Zurita Documentary Film review by Colin Lomas Water is the source of everything; our lives, our history, it has power, it is capable of sustaining life or destroying it, it holds communication from outer space and it defines our future. It is also the longest border to Chile, contrastingly one of the driest places on earth. These aquatic holistic musings are the basis of Patricio Guzmán’s latest part documentary,

Next/Door short film

Apr 4, 2016
2 min

Next/Door short film

Directed by Nathan Suher Starring David Kopcych, Gio Castellano & Lindsey Elizabeth Cork Short film review by Sarah Smeaton This short film is as terrifying as it is disturbing. A torturous story of unrequited love and a man who is willing to do anything, become anything, to have the woman he has his sights on. Next/Door right from word go sets up main character, Otto Wells, as being a simple, if somewhat lazy, average Joe, as the film opens on him slobbing out on his shabby

Straight Outta Compton

Aug 29, 2015
4 min

Straight Outta Compton

Directed by F. Gary Gray Starring O’Shea Jackson, Jr.; Corey Hawkins; Jason Mitchell; Neil Brown, Jr.; Aldis Hodge; and Paul Giamatti Review by Jack Martin “You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge” – so goes the opening lyrics of the N.W.A’s most famous track Straight Outta Compton, and also serves as one of the first things we hear in the group’s biopic of the same name. That strength is what carries F. Gary Gray’s film all the way throughout, and even

Paper Towns

Aug 29, 2015
3 min

Paper Towns

Directed by Jake Schreier Starring: Nat Wolff, Cara Delevingne, Austin Abrams, Justice Smith, Halston Sage ★★★ Review by Keiran Freemantle Author John Green has had great success with his novels targeted to a young adult audience. The adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars (2014) was a huge critical and commercial success and the same production and writing team were hoping to repeat that with the comedy-drama Paper Towns. Quentin AKA “Q” (Nat Wolff) and Margo (Cara Delevigne)

Trainwreck

Aug 29, 2015
3 min

Trainwreck

Directed by Judd Apatow Starring Amy Schumer & Bill Hader Review by Monica Jowett Judd Apatow’s fifth time directing, written by Amy Schumer, Trainwreck is a delightfully romantic sex comedy. Set in a summery New York that makes great use of the city, forming jokes over the nuisance of the Staten Island ferry and the Subway, with references to other New York-set films that place you on familiar ground. For first time screenwriting, Schumer shows that her unabashed feminist c

Vacation

Aug 21, 2015
4 min

Vacation

Directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein Starring Ed Helms, Christina Applegate Review by Jack Martin As yet another modern revitalisation of a comedy classic, this time taking its cues from National Lampoon’s Vacationwith Chevy Chase in the starring role, the new version of Vacation has received some pretty damning feedback from various critics. Words like “unnecessary” and “repugnant” have been thrown about, and it’s becoming one of the most hated films of the

Fantastic Four

Aug 19, 2015
2 min

Fantastic Four

Directed by Josh Trank Starring Miles Teller, Kate Mara & Michael B. Jordan Review by Chris Olson "Fantastic Failure" If you are exhausted from reading about another superhero/reboot it's probably because the studios-that-be have left us little time to ponder the cultural impact of their output before blasting us with another movie, whilst offering smaller returns in terms of creative gold. And this particular reboot from Twentieth Century Fox seems to be suffering from a fat

Roxy

Aug 19, 2015
2 min

Roxy

DIRECTOR: Fabien Colas CAST: Christiane Rausch, Emile Schlesser, Anne Metzler, Nickel Bosenberg, Thomas Maximillian Held Review by Jack Martin Right from the opening shot of Fabien Colas’ hard-hitting short Roxy, you can tell that this is an up-close and personal descent into melancholy. It consists of a close-up of our title character, played with great presence by Christiane Rausch, as she is driving in her car back to her small caravan on the outskirts of a German highway;

Making the Cut (documentary)

Aug 18, 2015
2 min

Making the Cut (documentary)

Directed by Emma Holbrook & Susannah Mo Review by Amaliah S. Marmon-Halm As we continue to live in an age of austerity, where elements vital to our society's wellbeing and sanity are being cut or reduced, it's not uncommon to find opinions and films like this one by Emma Holbrook and Susannah Mo trying to highlight the true cost of these cuts. They began to discuss the prospect of producing a short project with the aim to explore the knock on effects resulting from the loss o

Positive Discrimination

Aug 14, 2015
2 min

Positive Discrimination

Written and Directed by Charlo Johnson Starring Róisín O’Donovan, Liam Burke, Niall Dempsey & Maghnús Foy Review by Chris Olson With a film title as politically evocative as “Positive Discrimination”, few viewers would enter into Charlo Johnson’s short movie without a little suspicion that there might be a not-so-hidden message about equality. However, this story, much like the title, proves that all is not what it originally appears, and that our perception of what is put in

The Journey of Alfred Small

Aug 6, 2015
2 min

The Journey of Alfred Small

Written & Directed by Mike Archer Starring Philip Goldacre, Tayo Elesin Review by Amaliah S. Marmon-Halm Telling a tale of loss, everyday mundanity and struggles, The Journey of Alfred Small by Mike Archer of Old Lamp Films ltd takes a snapshot in the everyday life of an embittered old man and shows what happens when we look at life outside of our own comfortable bubbles. The film starts as a recollection, as police officers tend to the old man, Alfred Small. Alfred lives alo

Insurgent - DVD & Blu-ray Review

Aug 3, 2015
3 min

Insurgent - DVD & Blu-ray Review

“Tris this the real life? Is this just fantasy?” **** The immortal words of Queen there, adapted and skewed as a film review title for the second outing in the Divergent series of blockbuster movies. Insurgent, the second instalment, received mixed reviews at its theatrical release earlier in the year, the most common reaction being an apathy towards teen-fiction adaptations (see Hunger Games, Twilight, The Maze Runner). So why should UK audiences think about engaging in yet