Author: Joel Fisher

Leigh Tiller (Bethany Anne Lind) has a decision to make after she kills somebody in a confrontation. Unfortunately, she makes the wrong decision and disposes of the body, hoping that the mistake she made will go away and she can get on with the rest of her life.

Leigh lives with her teenage son, Ryan (Jared Ivers), she’s estranged from Ryan’s father and she has to deal with her own father, Sheriff Richard Tiller (Will Patton) on a daily basis. On top of this she doesn’t trust her father around Ryan because of the things he did when she was a child.

However, despite all of this, and as much as Leigh wants to forget about her dark past, eventually her conscious gets the better of her, leading her into more danger as she has to work to clean up the loose ends that lead her to the murder.

Matthew Pope’s directorial debut, Blood on Her Name is a taut, engrossing thriller with a wonderful cast, beautiful cinematography and a tight script. The film follows Leigh’s emotional state right throughout the film and it’s thanks to Lind’s performance that her character stays as sympathetic and likeable as she does.

The script also plays out during the film preferring to show and not tell the audience what they need to know all the time, which keeps the pace of the film tight with no wasted moments.

The whole feel of the film is that of any small town in America and is the kind that many film lovers have seen time and time again. However, keeping the focus so close to Leigh and her family makes the films tense and at times emotionally heart breaking as the audience watches her anguish as she decides what is to be her next step.

Blood on Her Name isn’t very surprising in terms of its plot (bar the final act perhaps), but there is just enough to keep the audience invested even though deep in their hearts they know the story will not end well for everyone.

Not exactly a film to watch to cheer yourself up after a long and stressful week, but for those who want to indulge in a bit of heightened drama told well then Blood on Her Name delivers everything that you may want.

Susan (Numa Perrier) let her love go back to Mexico. He told her that one day she should come and find him so that they can pick up right where they left off and that’s just what she did.

Travelling to a country she’s never been to before to find a man who may or may not have moved on with his life, Susan starts to wonder if she’ll ever find true love or even if her life has any direction at all. That’s the premise of Zoe’s script anyway.

Zoe (JoNell Kennedy) is an aspiring screenwriter, an artist whose stories have gone untold because of producers (mainly white men), other writers and industry ‘experts’ all telling her what she needs to do to make a great movie. Although Zoe is adamant that her story be told her way, the need to survive starts to become greater and as Susan’s story changes, Zoe’s own insecurities about her life and what the film industry needs to sell a movie start to blend to the point where Zoe doesn’t even recognise her own script anymore.

Una Great Movie is a film that is mostly true. Written and directed by Jennifer Sharp, the film is a humorous and satirical look at what an African American woman may need to do to make her career a success in the film industry.

Taking a lot of material from what is surely first hand experience, Sharp’s script excellently details all aspects of life as a struggling film maker. This experience makes the scenes of Zoe’s imaginary movie more understandable as Sharp’s observations are obvious to anyone who’s ever been to the cinema.

A passion project of Sharp’s for 18 years, Una Great Movie is perhaps not the film she intended to make all those years ago, but through experience and exposure to probably some of the worst people in the industry, it makes Una Great Movie stand out as something more. Diversity in cinema may not have been something that Sharp would have hoped she would still need to talk about when she first thought about her movie, but unfortunately it is as relevant now then it ever was.

Una Great Movie is something all people should see, because even if you don’t think there is a diversity problem in cinema, one movie might be all it takes to change your mind.

DC Comics and Warner Bros have had an interesting relationship as of late. Their new direction for some of comic’s best loved characters has been a divisive one. For every Wonder Woman there’s been a Suicide Squad, for every Joker there’s been a Justice League and now, riding on the tail of Joker (and Joaquin Phoenix’s) recent Oscar success comes Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey.

‘Wait a minute!’ I hear you say,

‘I thought the title was Birds of Prey: The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn?’ and to that I reply

‘Yes, you are quite correct and I compliment you on remembering that title so clearly’

However, over the movie’s opening weekend something happened. Warner Bros got quite excited about releasing a new movie based on one of their properties, but they forgot one thing. They forgot to market it up to high heaven so that people would actually see it. Joker was talked about months before it even came out, winning festival awards and even raising questions in the media about the influence of violence in cinema. What did Birds of Prey and The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn have? Two trailers and a poster. So, Warner Bros in all their infinite wisdom did the only thing they could do to boost ticket sales. They changed the title. So, for all intents and purposes this review will be about a little movie called Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey.

Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) has been dumped by Mr. J so now she’s out on her own and doing what everybody else does after a break up – partying and getting drunk. During her wild antics she attracts the attention of local crime lord, Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor) and realises her life has taken a turn for the worse. Seeing this as an opportunity to get rid of Gotham’s Clown Princess of Crime, Sionis sets about to bring her down. The problem is that he’s really underestimated his target and even worse, there are plenty of others who would like to see his head on a plate. So, after a diamond goes missing Sionis hires Harley to get it back so that he can reinstate his title as Gotham’s criminal kingpin.

Have you ever had one of those weeks? A bad break up over the weekend ruins your whole week, only for you to feel like a whole new person by the end of it. However, despite the name change, Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is still the same movie. Margot Robbie returns from being arguably the best part of Suicide Squad prompting Warner Bros to put all their eggs in one basket, hoping that Robbie would be able to pull it off – and she does.

One of the biggest problems about Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is expectations meeting reality. Half the audience want a comic book movie that’s extremely faithful to the comics and the other half probably saw Joker because of the awards buzz but had never seen a comic book movie before. So, when they heard about the Harley Quinn movie and her connection to Joker, they probably thought they were getting more or less the same thing. However, once both sides have reconciled with the fact that Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey scratches none of these itches then they’d really start to enjoy themselves.

Firstly, Margot Robbie is truly great, not only as Harley Quinn, but as a continuing screen presence. However, if you were expecting a Birds of Prey movie with a little Harley Quinn then you may be disappointed because she’s everywhere and this is pretty much her movie. Secondly, although the other characters bear very little resemblance to their characters in print, the film is made all the better for not having these strict constraints. if you were expecting the film to match exactly what was in your mind then you may have misunderstood what this film was in the first place – and that’s probably down to the marketing. Will the characters eventually get around to the way they are represented in the comics? Probably, but for now they are their own characters and the film is less of a comic book movie and more of a crime comedy along the lines of Midnight Run and The Big Lebowski. So, bearing this in mind you should get into the swing of things.

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey (yes, I am going to keep using that title) is a fast, frenetic and fun movie with great action set pieces, a great soundtrack and you may never see your local takeaway shop in the same way even again. This is Harley F****ing Quinn and you had better throw all those comparisons to Deadpool out of the window while you’re at it because she’s very much her own person and this is definitely her movie. There may not be a sequel, there may not be a stand alone Birds of Prey movie, but right now Harley Quinn has had her moment in the sun and it was truly fantabulous.

The Peanut Butter Falcon: The BRWC Review. Zak (Zack Gottsagen) has been living in a retirement home ever since his parents died. He’s made friends there, but only being in his early twenties he knows that it’s not where he is meant to be.

Zak watches wrestling regularly on TV with one of the residents, Carl (Bruce Dern) and has struck up a friendship with one of the care workers, Eleanor (Dakota Johnson). Then one day Zak sees an advert for a wrestling school and decides to escape to achieve his dreams of becoming a professional wrestler.

The trouble is that after his parents died, the state didn’t know what to do with somebody with Down Syndrome like Zak, so despite his previous attempts to escape he was always brought back – but this time it’s different. With a little help from Carl, a gap in the bars over the windows and a lot of soap, Zak escapes and goes on the run to meet his hero, The Salt Water Redneck (Thomas Hayden Church).

Whilst on the run, Zak stows away in a boat. However, unbeknownst to Zak, the boat’s owner, Tyler (Shia LaBeouf) is also on the run and Duncan (John Hawkes) is determined to chase him down to get the money he owes him, or something very bad could happen to Tyler. Meanwhile, Eleanor has been tasked with chasing down Zak to bring him back to the retirement home, but when all three of them find each other they learn to embrace life and see where it takes them.

The Peanut Butter Falcon is a great film, not only naturally giving its audience a better understanding of Down Syndrome, but leaving its audience feeling good while never makes the characters or story too sickly sweet. The cast are superb from the always reliable Bruce Dern, Shia LaBeouf’s charming and straight forward small-time crook, Dakota Johnson’s caring and sincere health worker and of course the breakout performance from Zak Gottsagen, who gives the film a likeable and fleshed out protagonist whose time on screen is a joy to witness.

Considering writer/directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz found Zak Gottsagen and believed in his aspirations in becoming an actor enough to craft a film and script around him, maybe this will be a turning point in the way disability is portrayed in cinema.

Gottsagen’s performance shows that a disabled actor can still have the range that an able-bodied actor can have and still have the presence to drive a film all by themselves. Hopefully other film makers will take notice and follow suit.