Shutter Island (2010)
Scorsese trades the streets for a fog-bound asylum and builds a gorgeous, paranoid Gothic puzzle. The mystery leans hard on its twist, but the atmosphere and DiCaprio carry it a long way. 8/10.
Read more →
Archive
All articles
Travel, technology, reviews, projects and diary — newest first.
The Book of Eli (2010)
The Hughes brothers return with a sun-bleached post-apocalyptic western that critics find thin and I find quietly gripping. Denzel Washington carries it, the world earns its silence, and on mood and rewatchability it lands well above the consensus. 8/10.
Read more →
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Guy Ritchie drags Conan Doyle's detective off the armchair and into the bareknuckle ring, and Robert Downey Jr gives him a manic charm that carries the whole thing. Not the Holmes of the deerstalker, but a thoroughly entertaining one. 8/10.
Read more →
Avatar (2009)
James Cameron returns from a twelve-year absence with an old story and a brand new planet. The plot is borrowed, the world is not, and on sheer immersion it is close to the top of the genre. 9/10.
Read more →
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
Terry Gilliam loses his leading man halfway through and turns the disaster into the design. The story is a tangle, the images are inexhaustible, and on sheer invention it earns its keep. 8/10.
Read more →
District 9 (2009)
A first-time director, a Peter Jackson cheque, and a mothership parked over Johannesburg. District 9 smuggles a furious apartheid allegory inside a mock-documentary action film, and the trick mostly comes off. 8/10.
Read more →
The Hurt Locker (2009)
Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq bomb-disposal thriller is the most acclaimed war film of the year, and I came away cold. Brilliantly shot, well acted, and for me an exhausting watch I have no wish to repeat. 5/10.
Read more →
The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)
Tony Scott remakes a 1974 New York hostage thriller as a loud, sweaty showdown between Denzel Washington's tired dispatcher and John Travolta's ranting villain. The original was leaner, but this one moves. 7.5/10.
Read more →
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
The sixth Potter film slows down, darkens the palette and lets its teenagers be teenagers. It is the most handsome film in the series so far and one of the best. 8/10.
Read more →
Moon (2009)
Duncan Jones makes his directing debut with a small, patient lunar science fiction film built around one actor and one idea. It is quiet, intelligent and beautifully made, and Sam Rockwell holds it together almost alone. 7.5/10.
Read more →