ÔÇ£Are you a watcher or a player?ÔÇØ is the hook for the new 2016 film, Nerve, starring Emma Roberts and Dave Franco. In this mind-twisting, edge-of-your-seat thriller, a shy high school teen, Vee (Emma Roberts) finds herself playing an online game of truth or dare without the truth. The game has the audience pulled in with what seems like an innocent dare -Vee has to … Continue reading Review: Nerve
Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, of Dodgeball fame, Central Intelligence┬áis surprisingly not terrible. The odd-couple film introduces us to┬ápopular and successful jock Calvin┬á(Kevin Hart), and brutally teased and overweight Robbie (Dwayne Johnson) at an end-of-high-school assembly. The year ends well for Calvin, receiving the ‘most likely to succeed award’, but badly for Robbie who is embarrassed in front of all his peers by some bullies, … Continue reading Review: Central Intelligence
Quench editor Beau Beakhouse headed down to London to speak with Richard Linklater, the Oscar nominated director, about his new film Everybody Wants Some!!┬áWatch the video here, or┬áhave a read of the transcript below. Quench: The first thing I wanted to ask is did you have a concrete vision going into the film that you wanted to create or was it in the production, where … Continue reading Interview: Richard Linklater on Everybody Wants Some!!
Directed by German director Sebastian Schipper, and shot by Sturla Brandth Gr├©vlen (Rams), Victoria is a German/English language film, shot in one continuous 138 minute take in real time. After winning awards at the Berlin Film Festival, and gaining a reputation for its daring shooting style, the film has reached a wider audience and received a strong critical reception. Opening to Victoria, the titular character, … Continue reading Victoria Review
Quench Video Games editor Tom Morris spends ninety minutes looking through the eyes of a killer cyborg, wondering why he doesn’t get to control him with a joystick. Hardcore Henry is less of a film and more like a LetÔÇÖs Play – that is, a first person playthrough of a hack-and-slash first person shooter game, except without commentary. The main character is ostensibly ÔÇ£you,ÔÇØ the … Continue reading Review: Hardcore Henry
You might have heard of Star Wars. It’s quite popular apparently. After ten long years, the hype train returns and itÔÇÖs more powerful than you could possibly imagine. So, here’s the review for the seventh film in the franchise, for which the title seems more appropriate as a question – Star Wars: The Force Awakens? And yes, indeed it does awaken. If you have yet … Continue reading Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
As part of the BFI Love Season, Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff have screened a choice selection of films spanning from ‘tainted love’ to classic romance. Quench reviews┬áa handful of these films. To find out which┬áexciting films Chapter are currently screening, and information on upcoming seasons, visit┬áhttp://www.chapter.org/whats-on/┬á. Brief Encounter (1945) As part of the BFI Love season, Chapter Arts Centre screened Brief Encounter,┬áDavid Lean’s 1945 … Continue reading Love Season at Chapter Arts Centre
Every year T┼À Celf, an annual arts publication for writing, photography, art and this time film, is published as a pull-out in Quench magazine and online. We are looking for contributions from Cardiff students (undergrad or postgrad) which include poetry, prose, digital or traditional art, photography and film. This is a great chance to get your work published in a magazine read by students and … Continue reading T┼À Celf 2015/16
Crimson Peak has what my old Film teacher would call a ÔÇÿcircular narrativeÔÇÖ, in which we follow an aspiring writer, Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska), trying to navigate the new, revolutionised world around her. ItÔÇÖs only until Baronet Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) and his sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) stain the gold-saturated world with their deep blacks, dark Hammer horror reds and ominous green/blue tones does Edith … Continue reading The Horror of Love: On the Ghosts of Crimson Peak
Amidst the whitewashing of past and current cinema, seeing a person of colour on our screens is refreshing. Yet, from makeup to putting on accents, the film industry still goes to great lengths to avoid employing actors of colour in the 21st century; because why bother casting a black actress when you can settle for Angelina Jolie with a perm? It’s not hard to spot … Continue reading Film in Technicolour: Problematic portrayals of race in the 21st century
Spoilers suck, plain and simple. No matter how much you try to forget that he dies, or pretend that itÔÇÖs an elaborate hoax, thereÔÇÖs just no escaping that knowledge and the sour, sinking feeling of watching the episode youÔÇÖve been waiting all week for, knowing itÔÇÖs all building towards a moment outlined an hour earlier in some Instagram comment. TheyÔÇÖre called spoilers for a reason. … Continue reading The Rules of Spoilers
Climbing Mt. Everest is a challenge of two halves; getting to the summit is only half of the mission. Once there you have to get back home. Likewise, this is a film of two halves. The first part of Everest┬áis the ascent, or build up. And, as with the real-life mission this film is based on, it all goes largely how youÔÇÖd expect. We are … Continue reading Review: Everest
I am a lone vessel in this vast void of nothingness. One man stranded on Mars with only his wits, spirit and science skills to accompany him. The Martian (directed by the one and only Ridley Scott) is a very unique film, and it delivers on so many levels. As a science-fiction action-adventure film there are plenty of jaw-dropping and intense moments in which the … Continue reading Review: The Martian
Billed as ‘a buddy comedy heist movie,┬áClerks meets Dog Day Afternoon,‘┬áConvenience┬áis one of the best British comedy films in recent years. Ray Panthaki, perhaps most known for co-producing instant cult hit┬áKidulthood, presents us with a film undoubtedly in the leagues of Shaun of the Dead and Four Lions. Convenience – of which director Keri Collins won the Bafta Cymru Breakthrough Award for┬á -┬árevolves around Ajay … Continue reading Review: Convenience
The plot of The Bad Education Movie follows incompetent teacher Alfie Wickers (Jack Whitehall) and his mischievous yet beloved History class as they embark on a school trip to Cornwall; a treat promised by Alfie as a celebration for finishing their GCSE exams (after the schoolÔÇÖs budget and the parentsÔÇÖ trust wonÔÇÖt stretch to a bender in Las Vegas). One mother isnÔÇÖt pleased with the … Continue reading Review: The Bad Education Movie
Never has film meant more about escapism than it has to the wolfpack. Crystal Moselle’s documentary focuses on six of the coolest and most well-dressed boys you’ll ever know. Named after Hindu deities, Mukunda, Naraya, Govinda, Bhagavan, Krisna (Glenn) and Jagadesh (Eddie) are the sons of Peruvian and practiser of Krishna consciousness Oscar who have, along with sister Visnu and mother Susanne, been confined to … Continue reading Review: The Wolfpack
To be completely honest, before Trainwreck,┬áthe only other time I had heard of the name ÔÇÿAmy SchumerÔÇÖ was when I was reading an article ÔÇô in my vast procrastinating period of time ÔÇô on this rising comedienne who had purposely tripped over in front of the paparazzi-hunted couple Mr and Mrs Kanye West, a small thing that made me giggle a bit. I did not … Continue reading Review: Trainwreck
From the toxic influences of Blake Fielder and the drugs he introduced to the intrusion of the hounding media, Amy explores Amy Winehouse’s life forced into the public. Filmmaker Asif Kapadia brings us this documentary film following the success of Bafta award-winning Senna, another posthumous recollection of a life ended too soon. Amy is a poignant piece of filmmaking that makes us sit helpless and … Continue reading Review: Amy
This was the last move in a great master plan: to dominate the box office, capture audienceÔÇÖs hearts and bring a mythical world to life. All three have been done, the former tenfold considering the end of 2014 grossing┬áfigures for the latest instalment into this epic middle-earth saga. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (here on in referred to as Five Armies) was … Continue reading Review: The Hobbit – The Battle of the Five Armies
After recently receiving six nominations at this yearÔÇÖs┬áAcademy Awards; including┬áBest Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, American Sniper had already established a high calibre prior to its release. The film is a┬ábiographical┬áwar┬ádrama film┬ádirected by┬áClint Eastwood┬áand written by┬áJason Hall, which centres on the awe-inspiring and melancholic tale of navy SEAL Chris Kyle, a sniper who was accredited officially with 160 kills; the deadliest marksman in US military … Continue reading Review: American Sniper
