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PARTISAN (2015)
Whether it’s the intense psychological drama of films like Sean Durkin’s underrated chiller Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), or the hilarious satire of irresistible Netflix comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, cultish secluded communities under the spell of charismatic, despotic, and most likely polygamist patriarchs, have become a popular setting for exploring the human condition. Australian filmmaker…
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Interview: James Dormer, co-creator of ITV’s BEOWULF
James Dormer is a British screenwriter, who has worked on TV shows like Sky1’s Sinbad, the BBC’s Musketeers and Spooks, ITV’s The Fixer, and as co-executive producer on the Cinemax/Sky action thriller Strike Back. He also wrote the 2014 Nicholas Cage movie Outcast. Now, he’s the head writer and executive producer behind ITV’s new fantasy…
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The 10 Greatest Studio Ghibli Films
It’s no overstatement to say that there’s always something to be impressed by in every Studio Ghibli film. Whether it’s the superb artistry of the animation, the delicacy and meaning of the storytelling, or the tremendous power of the ideas within the story, there’s something ineffable about these works that makes them so captivating. Japan’s…
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2016: Winter Film Preview
I’ve already previewed 8 television shows to look forward to in early-2016, but now it’s the turn of the movies. Below are 10 films that are premiering in the UK over the next three months, featuring frontiersmen, superheroes, giant pandas, monsters, boxers, models, and zombies! Let us know what you’re most excited about in the…
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SHERLOCK – ‘The Abominable Bride’
A considerable number of theories were spun about how Sherlock writers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss would transplant their very postmodern take on Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and John Watson (Martin Freeman) to the Victorian era. If you were au fait with the show then it was fairly easy to predict that any story set…
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IN THE HEART OF THE SEA (2015)
While it’s not completely dreadful, Ron Howard’s period actioner In the Heart of the Sea is a tepid attempt to bring excitement and conflict to the classic tale of Moby Dick, by telling the true story that inspired the book. The film is weakened by a lack of structure to its screenplay, an excessive insistence…
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2016: Television Preview
A new year brings fresh entertainment from the world of television. To help you get over the loss of 2015 to the mists of time, below you can find a few teases of the best new things premiering between January and March; sleuths, superheroes, FBI agents, record producers, and the devil himself… SHERLOCK • BBC1,…
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THE DANISH GIRL (2015)
Following on from their respective awards successes of late, a team-up between director Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) and Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) should be a shoe-in for Oscar success. The prestige of those two names—along with the worthy story of The Danish Girl, and the nature of Redmayne’s committed, cross-gender performance—make this the…
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2015: The Best Things We Saw This Year
It wouldn’t be late-December without an exhaustive number of end-of-year lists appearing online, looking back on the year’s great and terrible. It would be rude the break with this tradition, so the writers of Frame Rated have each chosen one thing they most enjoyed watching in 2015. As a bonus, each writer’s also listed nine…
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DOCTOR WHO – ‘The Husbands of River Song’
When a man pops his head out of a police box door and asks a duffle-coated Matt Lucas for an opinion on the set of antlers he’s sporting, you have a choice: a post-Christmas dinner snooze or prop your eyelids open with matchsticks to watch the Doctor Who Christmas special, “The Husbands of River Song”.…
