-
Dec 5, 2024 | 
mancunion.com | Tom Swift
After interviewing the festival director for Manchester Animation Festival, one of the premier events on the city’s film calendar, I was eventually able to attend the festival itself. I’d been previously, but only ever to one event over the course of the festival. 2024’s festival gave me the chance to see 3 films, 2 in conversation events and their student film showcase, giving me a nice spread in order to experience the breadth of what the festival has to offer.
-
Nov 28, 2024 | 
mancunion.com | Tom Swift
I was recently lucky enough to catch Canadian director Matthew Rankin’s second feature, Universal Language, at the Leeds International Film Festival. I’d heard the title mentioned, but prior to booking my tickets had no idea what the film was about, nor any expectations for it. Now that I have seen it, I can safely say it’s one of my favourites of the year, and I felt compelled to give it its own write up outside of my general review of LIFF.
-
Nov 27, 2024 | 
mancunion.com | Tom Swift
I was lucky enough to attend the Leeds International Film Festival for one jam packed Saturday of film watching. The festival hosts a wide repertoire of internationally renowned films, such as best picture shoe-in and Anora and other notable award contenders like Conclave, The Seed of the Sacred Fig and Bird. I didn’t see any of those films however, instead filling my day with 4 less widely seen but no less interesting films. The first film I saw at the festival was admittedly my most anticipated.
-
Nov 20, 2024 | 
mancunion.com | Tom Swift
20th November 2024 The new biopic about legendary musician Pharrell Williams has a great central concept but falls short of bringing much to the table besides thatCategories: Film, On ScreenTLDR
If you are human, leave this field blank.
In the current cinematic landscape, it takes quite some effort to make a music biopic or documentary that even remotely stands out.
-
Nov 20, 2024 | 
mancunion.com | Tom Swift
20th November 2024 The new biopic about legendary musician Pharrell Williams has a great central concept but falls short of bringing much to the table besides thatCategories: Film, On ScreenTLDR
If you are human, leave this field blank.
In the current cinematic landscape it takes quite some effort to make a music biopic or documentary that even remotely stands out.
-
Nov 9, 2024 | 
mancunion.com | Tom Swift
Manchester Animation Festival is something I’ve attended in some form or another for the last three years of me living in the city. It has a great selection of films, from larger studio pictures to tiny (both in terms of length and budget) indie films, as well as an abundance of great animation related events across the week. I was lucky enough to sit down and chat with Steve Henderson, the festival’s director, ahead of this year’s instalment of the festival.
-
Oct 25, 2024 | 
mancunion.com | Tom Swift
I’m sure the words ‘Trump Biopic’ would be greeted by groans from many. Over the last decade especially, seeing Donald Trump on our screens has been a source of immense displeasure, whether it’s the man himself or the abundance of tiresome impressions that seemingly never end. And given how much Hollywood loves a biopic at the moment, this took a surprising amount of time to get off the ground.
-
Oct 9, 2024 | 
mancunion.com | Tom Swift
Megalopolis is a film 40 years in the making. Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather Trilogy, Apocalypse Now) has been trying to get this film off the ground for decades, eventually using $120 million of his own money to get it made after no studios wanted to finance it. It premiered at Cannes in the summer, where it divided critics and struggled to find a distribution deal to get it into cinemas. Even after it found distribution, the press surrounding the film has been a mess.
-
Oct 9, 2024 | 
mancunion.com | Tom Swift
Megalopolis is a film 40 years in the making. Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather Trilogy, Apocalypse Now) has been trying to get this film off the ground for decades, eventually using $120 million of his own money to get it made after no studios wanted to finance it. It premiered at Cannes in the summer where it divided critics and struggled to find a distribution deal to get it into cinemas. Even when it did find distribution, the press surrounding the film has been a mess.
-
Jun 27, 2024 | 
americanthinker.com | Tom Swift
Providentially, Judge Juan Merchan has partially lifted his gag order on Donald Trump. Trump is now allowed to criticize Merchan and the jurors who convicted him of a nebulous “crime” in the New York bookkeeping case. Trump might want to use his newfound First Amendment freedom to foil Joe Biden’s predictable claim, at the upcoming first presidential debate, that in his America, everyone is treated equally under the law -- not only was Donald Trump convicted of a crime, but so was Hunter Biden.
