★ Directed by #MartinDelCarpio Written by #MartinDelCarpio Starring #StuLi Film Review by Jasmine Holly Bullock I, Dreaming is a short film written and directed by Martin Del Carpio in 2018. I say it is a short ‘film’; however it is definitely more of an experimental production. The story takes place within a man’s troubling dream as he tries to make sense of where he is and what is happening. I say ‘story’, but there is not much of a story. The whole project is very abstract, which makes sense as it is set in a dream state, and yet for something that is meant to be abstract... it was rather boring. There just wasn’t much to it. I didn’t get what was happening or the importance of what was happening and why I needed to watch it. There is a feeling that something sinister is occurring but I still don’t really know what I watched. The soundtrack of the piece, which is not exactly music and so may be better described as a sort of soundscape, consists mostly of static and synthesizer sounds, which make the setting seem very whimsical in a disturbing way. The soundscape is very nostalgic of some general Sci-Fi themed show I probably watched when I was younger but, again, it wasn’t bad but it also wasn’t impressionable enough to impress. The cinematography was decent, as were the special effects, although the green screen effects were rather noticeable and this was sometimes irksome. Whilst the cinematography was good, it wasn’t mind-blowing quality and it certainly wasn’t enough to make up for everything else that seemed to be lacking. In fact, my contentment with the cinematography might just be because it was the least disappointing thing about I, Dreaming. Stu Li stars as the dreamer, and he delivers a good performance however, there wasn’t much he was able to showcase in terms of his ability as an actor simply because the plot didn’t allow for this to happen. I think there was a lot more that could have been done with this character but then again, for such a short film that is experimental in nature, character may not have been the most important thing for Martin Del Carpio’s vision as writer and director of the film. Overall, I may be being quite harsh on my judgement but I, Dreaming just seemed like an unimpressive project that had a lot of potential regarding what it centres on. When you focus on a subject like dreaming, the possibilities are literally endless and provide so much to play with for a writer and visual director. Therefore, my high hopes and high standards were just not met. I, Dreaming is just over 6 minutes long, so check it out if you’re curious, but I wouldn’t say it’s a must see. #JasmineHollyBullock

★★★★★ Directed by: #MatthiasHarris Written by: #HishamKhan Starring: Hisham Khan, #SianHill, Matthias Harris and #AlexanderCornelius Short Film Review by: Rachel Pullen Safe Zone Movie Review I don't dig the apocalypse, seems tedious and a right inconvenience if you ask me, but more to the point it's also properly annoying if you require medical care or access to important and essential supplies. Like those lime flavoured Jaffa Cakes you can sometimes get....tasty times. Short film Safe Zone, directed by Matthias Harris, is a dark exploration into the knock-on effects that can occur when the human race is put under extreme pressure, when we are inserted into extreme circumstances, and how those factors cause us to do...well, extreme and often stupid things. There is nothing that hits the audience harder than the reality that we are all as vunrable as the next in regards to our own choices made in moments of panic and fear; we can all be stupid, no matter how much you prepare. In this short we see a husband and wife in that exact situation, frantically driving to what seems like nowhere, desperately trying to ''stop the bleeding'' of a wound or victim that is kept out of sight, but the problem is, in the middle of a pandemic of infection, there is nowhere to go, but to just drive with the hope that something promising will appear around the next bend. Claustrophobic close ups of the couple fill us with the panic and dread that they both feel, the dusty vast fields that surround them only fuel the panic as we are reminded of the isolation due to the pandemic that they are involved in, all of these aspects remind us that...no nothing is coming around the next bend, and this is an achievement in #filmmaking that we cannot overlook in this short film. While all this bleak action is going on, a hunky and mysterious man comes along and starts to ransack a car on the side of the road, it's the end of the world so why not, robbing is the last thing to worry about at this point. But his Robin Hood session is interrupted by our couple, blood soaked and muddy emerging from the forest, they have buried their child, never seen but only hinted at by evidence in the movie. Safe Zone lives in a world of ambiguity, never showing its full hand throughout the film, right until that last moment, when boom, it pulls out a royal flush and we all do that thing where we scream at the T.V. and slap the tops of our thighs, because at the end of the day ambiguity is king, it creates drive and momentum without being too flashy and over the top. We investigate, we connect and we travel with the character, something that Safe Zone does with a finesse and style that is not to be underrated. Enjoyable, stunning and emotionally driven, Safe Zone ignores the obvious fear and impact of a national pandemic and rather chooses to expose us to our inner fears of losing loved ones, and the consequences of choices that we make in the heat of the moment, the concept of ''could I, would I and should I'' will eat at the human soul more than any apocalypse or pandemic can throw at us, and is that not the bigger nightmare? #RachelPullen #BUFF #BritishUrbanFilmFestival #FilmFestival Watch the Movie Trailer

★★★★ Directed by: #EiriniKonstantinidou Written by: #EiriniKonstantinidou, #RobinKing Starring: #FreyaBerry, #RobinKing, #TimSeyfert, #TallulahSheffield, #RobertMiltonWallace, #Jamie Laird Film Review by: Darren Tilby Any and all great science-fiction movies serve as a commentary on mankind’s connection to, and relationship with, technology. Or what we might call progress. Eirini Konstantinidou’s interest is just that; the evolutionary progress of mankind. And she sets out with a studious examination of the pros and cons of technology’s involvement in that. It soon becomes clear there’s no right or wrong here, no black or white. Just a quagmire of ethical dilemmas. With the use of brain-implanted chips, which records every living experience, people are now able to live through other’s thoughts, feelings and experiences. Living or dead. But these technological advances in virtual reality and its increased and prolonged use has brought about the existence of a now widespread condition called Mnemophrenia (a portmanteau of “mneme” and “schizophrenia”). A condition defined as a subject having both real and artificial memories. Often with the sufferer being unable to differentiate between the two, hence losing their sense of identity. The narrative flicks between three different story arcs, each following a different generation of the same family and their experiences of Mnemophrenia. The first concerns Jeanette Harper (Freya Berry), a young woman whose life has been shaped, and scarred, by the memories of a past love affair that never happened. The next arc sees Jeanette’s grandson, Nicholas Morgan (Robin King), embracing his Mnemophrenia and using it to develop new virtual reality technology for a company called Total Cinema. The last is centred around Robyin (Tallulah Sheffield), a young and terminally ill woman, who decides to use her brain-implanted virtual reality chip to record and catalogue her experiences of dying. Beliving the ability to feel and experience other people’s ordeals is the next evolutionary step for humanity. All the major characters come off as well-rounded and well-developed individuals, with cause for their actions and points-of-view. Konstantinidou achieved this by making each story arc in chronological order, then asking the actors to watch the previous segment and build their characters based on what they’d observed. And I think it’s worked really well here, as performances are, generally, excellent across the board. Although there are a few instances of poor delivery and emotional vacancy. Mnemophrenia serves as a chilling and all too ineluctable vision of our future. Each story presents itself as a debate on the morality of our ever-increasing inputting of personal data and how computer algorithms process this data. The manner in which Konstantinidou approaches this is wholly academic; presenting points-of-view for both sides of the argument. Everyone here is given a fair hearing, and there’s no right or wrong to be found anywhere. This approach works so well with science-fiction filmmaking as this is the defining trait of the genre. The blurring of lines between technological progress and loss of humanity has long been science fiction’s modus operandi, even going back as far as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein - arguably the first work of science fiction in history. And Mnemophrenia itself seems like a natural progression for the genre. It brilliantly picks up on the hot topic of its time – in this case, immersive virtual reality technology – and asks “where might this take us?” And, while there are a few problems to be found, this is a damn fine piece of work, written by a damn fine writer. It’s a film that deserves an audience. An audience I’m sure it’ll get.

★★★★ Directed and written by #MatthewSteggles Starring #NiamhWalter, #LiamJefford, #HelenWatson, #IainStuartRobertson, #HayleyMarieAxe, #VidalSancho Short Film Review by Jack Bottomley When we think of dystopia films, we think of empty streets, collapsed roads, nature reclaimed industrial structures, baron lands patrolled my the mad remnants of mankind or a grey smog-coated world. We think of high production value cinematography and we think of a worn down, dirty and desperate cast (often with big beards) braving this shattered world to survive. However, some of the very best of the genre make an uncertain future very familiar to us, be it addressing the divide between the wealthy and the poor, man’s inhumanity to man or a pandemic-stricken society. And in the case of director/writer #MatthewSteggles’ The Blinded Ride, the future is paved cleverly by using the horror of the present but reversing its roles for the future. Set in the winter 2049, the British public has been divided by extreme weather conditions which have left many homeless and desperate. Famine, disease and these unpredictable climates have forced many to seek a new home abroad. This story concerns a group of refugees aboard a truck, in particular thirteen year-old Sophie (#NiamhWalter) and her grandparents, as they worry about what comes next, tremble at the numerous boundary stop and checks, and combat the hopelessness of their situation. This film, save for a rain strewn high speed view of the road and its passing vegetation, is set entirely in the back of the lorry as Sophie, her grandparents and a few other scared stowaways, sit as quietly as they can and hope for the best. This immediately brings us onboard the vehicle as a secret passenger ourselves, thanks to realistic cinematography by #LeeThomas, and the ensuing tension, build and violent turns in Steggles’ narrative is gripping, haunting and tragic. This is largely down to the fact that, in spite of being set nearly 3 decades in the future, this is a reality being lived every day by many distressed people intentionally seeking safety. The fact the film reverses these roles impactfully anchors the strife of the unheard voices around us, and while the film’s other sub-plots (Sophie’s father, the natural disasters that broke Britain) remain quite undeveloped, this does add to the mystique of this future setting, almost as if these tidbits are word of mouth information we are hearing as a confused fellow traveller on this frighteningly unpredictable road. In spite of the fact this has a global warming connotation to it rather than a viral outbreak, there is a timely nature to The Blinded Ride in our COVID-19 times. As news keeps being unveiled about the replenishment of nature in our lockdown absence, it only further proves the largeness of this issue should we keep ignoring it. Also, this film’s snapshot of a fearful and uncertain humanity is all too familiar at the moment, giving this further contemporary edge. The acting is really excellent from the cast. Young Niamh Walter as lead Sophie greatly shows us the view of a broken world from young eyes, while #HelenWatson is strong and compassionate as her resilient nana, while #IainStuartRobertson leaves a memorable imprint on the film as her grandad. And there is great support offered by #LiamJefford, #HayleyMarieAxe and #TatanniaRenner as a group of frightened young people trying to reduce risk of catastrophe on what proves to be a terrifying journey into the uncertain. Like Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men, this is a desperate future built on realistic fears and issues, as the plot flips situations and is a taut and compelling short feature as a result. #JackBottomley

★★★★ Directed By: #JesseEdwards Written By: #JesseEdwards Starring: #PatrickHiggs #AJGatio #JeffSievers #LacyGarrison #LoganSmith #SashaSievers Short Film Review by: #ChrisBuick At the time of writing this, we are for sure, living in the strangest and most difficult period of history that mankind has faced in recent times. Over the last few months, COVID-19 has forced us almost permanently into our homes, away from friends and loved ones and placed a huge question mark over the future of the global economy. And we’re scared. None of us can say when we might finally see the other side of this, or what kind of world we will be left with when we do. But the most vital thing we all need to remember is that while we are all scared, we are not alone, and we all can and should always be there for each other, no matter the distance between us. Short film Distance, written and directed by #filmmaker Jesse Edwards and produced by Evolve Studios, is here to try and remind us of that important message. What they have delivered is an honest and poignant depiction of the current mood of the planet which as they put it, is also living through a different sort of pandemic, a pandemic of fear, but while also trying to provide an inspiring tale of hope. The #shortfilm starts with all the drama and pace reminiscent of the trailer or opening sequence to your typical summer blockbuster, scattered news segments, ominous music and dramatic phone calls. But while these may be your disaster film clichés, the difference here is that they are in fact simply echoing the surreal drama we’ve all witnessed over the last few months. We see many of the all too familiar scenes, panic buying, empty supermarket shelves (toilet paper gets its special mention) as well as worryingly rising statistics. The questions and subsequent rumours and misinformation that we have all asked and heard (and at times clung to) are also present. Who is more at risk? What happens if I show symptoms? What exactly are the symptoms? What’s going to happen to our jobs? All of these fears are personified in such clarity by the films characters, each one a manifestation of the conflicting daily thoughts occupying our heads. There is the part of us trying to put on a brave face for our families such as parents Sharon (Garrison) and Matt (Jeff Sievers), who himself has just lost his company. Their son Jared (Smith) is the part of us that screams in fear that we don’t know anything. But in an impressive debut, Sasha Sievers Josie is the little voice inside us that we need to try and push to the front of our minds, the one that tells us that we can get through this, together. It’s an impeccably put together piece of filmmaking as well, some beautiful camerawork really helps the emotion of the film make its full impact. There are moments where the drama just seems to boil over clumsily though, the scoring in particular is a constant resounding presence that overpowers at times. And despite some near perfect performances from the whole cast there are missteps; for example Matt nor his family not seeming overly distraught when telling them he just lost his entire company but one can accept that when it’s all in service of serving the bigger message Not an easy watch at times and may land a little too close to home for some. But Distance may well be one of the pivotal go-to cinematic references when humanity looks back on this extremely difficult time. For now, it is a sorely needed message of hope and an important reminder that we are all in this together. Stay home. Stay safe. #ChrisBuick Watch the trailer here:

★★★ Directed by #DrakeDoremus Written by #JardineLibaire #DrakeDoremus Starring #ShaileneWoodley #JamieDornan #SebastianStan Film Review by George Wolf When does the guise of self discovery collapse under the reality of self absorption? Endings, Beginnings unwittingly toes that line for most of its running time, ultimately rescued by the sheer earnestness of its lead performance. Shailene Woodley shines as Daphne, an aspiring artist who's living in her sister's LA pool house after quitting her job and longtime boyfriend to go find herself. But first, she finds Frank (Sebastian Stan) and Jack (Jamie Dornan), two good friends who don't try very hard not to let Daphne come between them. Frank's the impulsive bad boy and Jack's the reliable good guy, with Daphne bouncing between them while the film pretends it's because the two men see her differently. It's Daphne who sees herself differently, and her inability to choose is just one of the ways Daphne's newly-stated goal of doing good for others rings with as much authenticity as her winning the claw game at the arcade (really, she wins!). Don't get me wrong, an unlikeable protagonist can be more than okay, it can be a bold and challenging narrative choice. But here, director/co-writer Drake Doremus (Like Crazy) is desperate to sell us personal growth and "music to suffer to" playlists when all we keep seeing are excuses for selfishness. The always reliable Woodley still manages to make Daphne an interesting train wreck. Her vulnerability and confusion at facing this premature midlife crisis does feel real, and Woodley elevates the film by making sure Daphne - likable or not - is a complex personality forgotten by a litany of romance fantasies. The chemistry between Woodley, Stan and Dornan is solid, seemingly bolstered by improvisational trust amid Doremus's abrupt cuts and flashback sketches. Endings, Beginnings has all the parts of a consistently competent and watchable affair. But the resonant character study it aspires to be - much like the character itself - slips away simply from pretending to be something it's not. #GeorgeWolf

★★★ Directed By: #ChrisQuick Written By: #ChrisQuick #AndySMcKewan Starring: #DuncanAirlieJames #ChrisQuick #AmyEWatson #NicoletteMcKeown Short Film Review by: #ChrisBuick Do you like surreal comedies involving foul-mouthed Scottish hand-puppets, sex and excessive cereal consumption? Well you’re in luck because there just so happens that there is a filmmaker out there who not only shares your unique tastes but has now blessed us with two such films of his own. Autumn Never Dies is, as the film affectionately calls itself, “the sequel to the film you probably didn’t see”. That film being the 2012 venture The Greyness of Autumn, an off-the wall black comedy featuring ostrich puppet Danny, whose life spirals wildly out of control after losing his job and the love of his life Katie (not a puppet) in the same day, and his lodger/friend Nelson (a monkey puppet) who spends nearly all of his time eating cornflakes, watching porn and generally being a dick to everyone. The original film gained something of a cult following upon its release after a rather successful Kickstarter campaign, a sequel was green-lit, thus giving us Autumn Never Dies. The sequel picks up right after the conclusion of its predecessor. Danny is now in therapy, having attempted to take his own life after his aforementioned downward spiral, and his friend Nelson is trying in his own unique way to help him get his confidence back, starting of course with speed dating and pub quizzes. This is where Danny meets Lizzie (also not a puppet), who seems to be the woman for him. But just as his life is getting back on track, Danny’s ex Katie comes back asking forgiveness, and now Danny finds himself with an incredible decision to make. There is a striking difference in tone between the two Autumn instalments. Where the first film was much more sombre and quite bleak in its approach albeit still with a certain crude charm. Autumn Never Dies is a much lighter affair, with a few new faces and greater emphasis on the laughs while also turning up the dial on the naughtiness (this will probably be the first time you’ve seen the silhouette of a woman and an ostrich puppet having relations). The first film also contained a kind of social commentary around discrimination, showing the challenges the puppets faced trying to exist within a human world but this has all but disappeared in this instalment, which is actually for the best as this then allows the film to become a more stripped-back, focused endeavour and as a result is a tighter, better-paced comedy. “The balloon burst” There are some brilliant cut away gags to enjoy, as well as some snappy one-liners, most of which it must be said are given to Chris Quick’s outrageous Nelson. It also makes full use of the barbed sense of humour which is unique to the Glaswegian tongue, always equal parts aggressive, funny and unapologetically direct. Some jokes don’t land like they should; while it generally tends to lean more towards the smarter stylings of its distant cousin Bojack Horseman, there are moments that feel more like the random stupidity of a Family Guy episode. But what it does have (and needs) in absolute spades is a hundred-percent commitment from the cast, especially the human characters, whose belief in the project is absolute which allows us to buy into it as well. Personally, it would be nice to see these characters come back again either in similar fashion or even in a short series format. Autumn Never Dies is an acquired taste to be sure but you just need to go with it. And while you’ll probably come out the other side still slightly bewildered, you will be sure to have a few good laughs along the way. #ChrisBuick Watch the trailer here:

★★★★ Directed by #TylerCornack Written by #TylerCornack #RyanKoch Starring #TylerRice #TylerCornack Film Review by Matt Weiner A killer fixated on jamming people, animals and any other object not nailed down into his rectum. The grieving detective haunted by loss and obsessed with hunting him down. Every now and then a movie comes along that seems to exist as much as an inside dare as it does to mock the complaint that there’s no original IP anymore. If the title wasn’t ample enough warning, Butt Boy is that kind of movie. And just about every demented minute of it is a heady joy to watch. Add this to the list of sentences I wasn’t really expecting to write before going into the Butt Boy movie, but beneath the high-concept plot and anal absurdity you’ll find a pretty decent send-up of a “tortured detective” action film. Detective Russel Fox (Tyler Rice) gets assigned the case of a missing child, his main suspect seems to have made his victim disappear into thin air in a public, crowded place. That’s because mild-mannered IT drone Chip Gutchell (Tyler Cornack, who also co-wrote and directed) does have a way of making his victims – also remote controls, beloved family pets, you name it ­– vanish without a trace. Up his butt. In focusing on Russel and a cop noir send-up, Cornack’s script ends up being more satirical than disturbing. If anything, it would’ve been an interesting experiment to see the movie fully embrace the horror of its conceit rather than leavening it with self-referential absurdity. Or maybe not – Butt Boy is likely a hard enough sell. The cast all do a fine job helping to sell it with deadpan line deliveries. And Cornack pulls out all the stops for a conclusion that trades on all the detective noir clichés while still managing to be truly shocking. There’s a cosmic irony that it’s been quite a year for delirious, genre-bending movies, including Joe Begos’s VFW, and Richard Stanley’s Color Out of Space. Now, we’re all stuck home for yet another uninhibited midnight movie that begs to be seen with a crowd of stoned fellow travelers who know this was made with love for people like them. The fact that life had a different kind of horror planned shouldn’t keep you from the giddy escapism of Butt Boy, no matter how much smaller that ass will now loom on the home screen. #MattWeiner

★★★ Written & Directed by: #JackyYeap Starring: #JaredLiewWeiYang, #JaycnWeiYeeTeng, #WongMunKwong Film Review by: Taryll Baker Beginning with a wide shot of an open field and a single man in the centre of the frame. “Single” being the right word since he’s just about to be dumped by his girlfriend, who creeps into the frame moments later. A visual clue of what’s to come before any word of dialogue is spoken. The man (or The Boy as he’s credited) requires a new hairstyle, otherwise he can almost never be appreciated by another. Still, this doesn’t change his opinion on his hair. Perhaps someone will prove his now ex-girlfriend wrong and appreciate him for who he is. We follow The Boy (Jared Liew Wei Yang) as he wanders around town, with an inner dialogue vocalising his interesting outlook on life. He goes home, cries (or tries too) and heads out for some food. There’s some charm in the writing throughout this little film, and it comes from the budding conversations between The Boy and the new girl he meets (Jaycn Wei Yee Teng). They share in a short evening stroll together, she mentions a boyfriend, he mentions his ex-girlfriend. There’s a considerable restraint from running off together, though. Both have their reasons to not engage with the other, going no further than a friendly interaction. The two seem to get along just fine, but when she must leave, The Boy remains in place and the inner dialogues from both become one. What this film really succeeds in is the calm but not so collected nature of falling in love. The longing. The questioning. Everything that comes with it. It accomplishes a fair amount in twenty minutes. Though the story does seem thin, the other elements hold it all together, such as the cinematography. Howard Tai opens the film with the aforementioned wide shot of the field and creates a constant feeling of separation throughout. Most shots have characters sat far apart from each other, or a small fraction of the frame filled with the world around them. If you were to switch off the subtitles, you could watch the story unfold visually, and pick up on most of the emotional beats just the same. The editing felt incredibly laid-back, writer and director Jacky Yeap chooses to linger on subjects longer than usual, either as an attempt to get every last detail out of each performance, or just simply a stylistic approach. Regardless of intention, it works well. Falling in Love Again doesn’t pursue anything new or ground-breaking, but it does have a nice look and feel. I’d like to see what else Jacky Yeap works on in the future. Perhaps an expanded version of this story or something entirely new, but that’s for time to tell.

★★★★★ Directed by: #NicolePott Written by: #MichaelaLongden Starring: #MichaelaLongden, #AnthonyQuinlan Film Review by: Darren Tilby Director Nicole Pott has really made a name for herself over the last five years for directing (and writing) hard-hitting, socio-cultural dramas. It perhaps comes as little surprise then to hear that, last year, she was approached to direct first-time-writer Michaela Longden’s short film, Asphyxiate. A film which examines not only what domestic abuse can look like, but also the effects – both short and long term – physical and emotional abuse has on the victim. I won’t mess about here, this is an incredibly difficult movie to watch. And that’s coming from someone who’s never had to endure a relationship like this. But, of course, it should be. No-one should be trivialising a problem that affects millions of women in the UK alone. So it’s good that the tonality here is beyond perfection. Longden’s sublime, and incredibly intimate, writing style takes us through Katie’s (Michaela Longden) increasingly dysfunctional relationship with her ever controlling, and violent, partner Tom (Anthony Quinlan). As you may have guessed, the film gets its title from the unbearable sensation of suffocation often felt by those in such relationships as Katie eventually finds herself in. And so it seems entirely appropriate when Longden just drops us into the deep end and expects us to swim. Something we never really recover from until the movie ends, as we’re immediately put into Katie’s shoes. We have no problem in sympathising with Katie’s situation: she’s desperately trying to stay afloat while having her character broken down and destroyed, piece by piece. It’s an uncomfortable feeling, one that’s made even more so by its two brilliant central performances. Quinlan is fantastic as the utterly reprehensible Tom, particularly in his portrayal of a person having absolute power over another. While Longden, in the lead role of Katie (the very heart of the film), displays an undeniable powerhouse of a performance; a simmering pot of fervour with whom we can fully sympathise. In fact, the sensation of asphyxiation is so authentic, even for the viewer. Just watching the movie (which is beautifully framed and shot by Hamish Saks) made me feel like I was constricted and trapped. The remarkable sound design is mostly to blame/thank for this. The terrific (and terrifying) brooding intensity of GAS Music's’ work here is outstanding. It seems such a simple score – in its construction, at least – but it’s so devastatingly effective. It’s hard to imagine Asphyxiate could have had a better writer and director coupling than Michaela Longden and Nicole Pott. The pair are at the top of their game here, and it shows; this is damn near perfection. Everything feels extremely personal and all too real. There were a few times when I just wanted the film to end, so unbearable, was it. I don’t mean that in any negative way, of course, it’s how the film should be. And it’s the kind of movie we desperately more of. One that isn’t afraid to tackle difficult socio-cultural issues head-on, and from an unashamed and unapologetically female point-of-view. A brilliant piece of work on an incredibly important subject matter.

★★★★ Directed by: #EEHegarty Written By: #JemmaField and #MichaelMüller Starring: #EllaHunt, #KatherineKelly, #JoannaDavid and #DougiePoynter Film Review by BrianPenn There’s something comforting almost nostalgic about Kat and the Band. On the cusp of adulthood we all dreamed of managing a successful band; back to back parties with framed platinum discs on the wall. However, it never got closer than watching bands on the live circuit, and occasionally being able to say I was there when they played their first gig. It tells the story of music obsessed schoolgirl Kat (Ella Hunt) who blags her way into gigs with best friend Jane (Jennifer Leong) in tow. Kat is determined to forge a career in the music business and targets struggling band Dollar Days. She talks bassist Alex (Dougie Poynter) into managing the band and sets about finding them new gigs. However, Kat has exams approaching and mother Liz (Katherine Kelly) is determined she get the grades for university. Whilst her mother doesn’t understand she finds comfort in her Gran (Joanna David), a child of the 60s who is more of a kindred spirit. Jane wonders whether Kat fancies Alex and managing the band is just an excuse to spend more time with him. Jane herself is loved up with Marcus (Jackson Bews) who plays in a rival band. With a curious mix of luck and confidence Kat plots a career path for the young guns in her charge. A film of this type relies on a strong soundtrack and benefits hugely from songs contributed by Some Velvet Morning. It compensates for a flimsy plot and script heavy on buzz phrase (‘if I’m in the moment I feel the moment’) and light on real humour. One of my favourite pastimes is to pick holes in movie plots and could easily run wild here. However, it wouldn’t be fair or necessary as entertainment value trumps the film’s shortcomings. Falling back on clichés there is something very likeable and heart-warming about this story. It generates a natural glow and reminds us to follow our dreams. And we need the feel good factor more now than ever.

★★★ Directed by #WaltDohrn #DavidPSmith Written by #JonathanAibel #GlennBerger Starring #AnnaKendrick #JustinTimberlake #RachelBloom Film Review by George Wolf They may sing songs we already know in a sequel that’s often thematically simple, but to quarantined families longing for an escape from re-runs, these new Trolls will feel like a cool blast of freedom. Just as Branch (Justin Timberlake) is working up the courage to break out of the friend zone with Queen Poppy (Anna Kendrick), trouble invades the Pop Troll world of endless singing, dancing and regular hug appointments. Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom) of the Rock Trolls, daughter of King Thrash (Ozzy Osbourne!), has set out on a Mad Max-style rampage through Troll Kingdom, collecting the magic strings from each of 6 different musical villages in a quest to make everyone bow to power chords and devil horns. Poppy makes a pinky promise (a pinky promise!) not to let that happen, so she heads out with Branch and Biggie (James Corden) on a shuffle through the Troll playlist. Like the first film, World Tour brings exuberant splashes of sound, color and enthusiasm. But while this latest adventure salutes more types of music, it somehow makes all them feel more bland on the way to its evergreen moral of appreciating differences. What elevates these Trolls, though, is their funny bone. One of the directors and two of the writers return from part one, but this film is much funnier, especially for the parents sitting down for movie night. From the struggle to grasp “Hammer time” to the deviousness of yodeling and the futility of fighting smooth jazz, this script-by-committee lands several solid gags. A new group of all star voices (especially a scene-stealing Sam Rockwell as Hickory the cowboy) helps, too. And really, where else are you gonna hear Ozzy mumble through “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun?” #GeorgeWolf