Nicky Branagh
Nicky has written on everything from fashion and beauty to gadgets and travel. Her heart lies in the film world however, and she spends an unhealthy amount of her spare time both watching and writing about films. Her list of favourites include Badlands, Back to the Future and Flight of the Navigator, which she demanded was played every day before she went off to Nursery, aged four. She prides herself on her table football skills and her most recent achievements include wielding Thor's hammer and putting together some rather large IKEA shelves.
Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is a singleton living in New York. On the surface, he’s just another young professional going about his everyday life but underneath lies a dark secret; an inherent risk of self-destruction led by his all-consuming urge for sexual satisfaction.
Set in 1963 Mississippi, US box office smash The Help is based on the 2009 novel of the same name, penned by director Tate Taylor’s childhood friend, Kathering Stockett. Hollywood hot property Emma Stone leads the narrative as uni graduate Skeeter, an aspiring writer who returns home to find that the black maid who helped bring her up has inexplicably disappeared. Distraught by this turn of events and perturbed by how her friends treat their own domestic ‘help’, Skeeter decides to anonymously document the relationships of her Stepford Wife-style peers and their household help - as seen through the eyes of the African-American maids.
Flashing onto the screen in a series of fast-paced frames set against a thumping soundtrack, Contagion is instantly captivating. Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow) is shown on the return leg of a business trip to Hong Kong, feeling increasingly under the weather. Putting it down to jet lag, she thinks nothing of it.
These opening moments are intercepted with similar instances of other people across Hong Kong and London. Sufferers have blurry vision and develop fevers before suddenly dropping down dead. Whatever it is, this is not jet lag.
Developed from his BAFTA and Silver Lion-winning short, Dog Altogether, Tyrannosaur is actor Paddy Considine’s feature debut and one that sees him move from the front of the camera and into the director’s chair with terrific ease.
The audience is introduced to Peter Mullan’s Joseph – a violent drunkard who spends his days sinking pints at the pub with his mate, Tommy (Ned Dennehy), and visiting his dying friend’s bedside – just as he is bludgeoning his beloved dog to death following an unsuccessful, booze-fuelled gamble.
Word has it that man-of-the-moment Ryan Gosling was prescribed by a doctor to go straight into a comedy role, following his stint in Blue Valentine - perhaps not so surprising considering the film’s general tone (we’re sobbing just thinking about it). That’s not to say it wasn’t an utterly superb film. Indeed, Gosling has made some rather impeccable career decisions, with the actor seeming to avoid rom-coms entirely. So would trying out the genre at this stage in his fast-rising career put a black mark on his CV?
