Twilight (2008)
Jan 1, 2009Vampire Romance
Before the teen idol phenomenon took over, the original in the massively popular Young Adult series works as an earnest romance where all involved are clearly making an effort to play with a conviction
Anna Kendrick
New Moon (2009)
Nov 30, 2009Twilight Sequel/Vampire Romance
The second of the Twilight films where the moderately grounded original is blown up into the near laughable with the ridiculously over-the-top hyper-sexualised posturing of its male leads
Eclipse (2010)
Jul 4, 2010Twilight Sequel/Vampire Romance
The third of the Twilight films. This extrudes the dramatic irresolution of the last film’s cliffhanger – should Bella marry Edward or does she really love Jacob? – with over-padded momentousness
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
Aug 15, 2010Teenage Nerd Romance/Gonzo Superheroics
An Edgar Wright directed comic-book adaptation made in a bewildering restless visual style that feels like two different films happening at once, one a sweet nerd romance and the other a completely gonzo superhero film
ParaNorman (2012)
Aug 16, 2012Stop-Motion Animated Children's Film/Kid Sees Dead People
Stop-motion animated children's film from Laika that demonstrates a willingness to be scary. The film starts to move out of the amiably likeable after around the halfway point when it begins to play a number of horror tropes against expectation to deliver a reasonable message about fear and prejudice
Rapture-Palooza (2013)
Feb 23, 2014Biblical End Times Comedy
There is irresistible appeal to the idea of a comedy that conducts a spoof of the Biblical Rapture. Despite a script from one of the Bill and Ted writers, this emerges as a remarkably unfunny film that consists of about an hour of Craig Robinson delivering crude sexual innuendos
Life After Beth (2014)
Sep 6, 2014Zombie Romantic Comedy
Billed as a ‘zom-rom-com', Dane DeHaan deals with girlfriend Aubrey Plaza who has returned from the dead. The film has a quirky appeal to it, even if in the end you never feel it is quite as funny as it promises to be
Into the Woods (2014)
Dec 25, 2014Fairytale Parody Musical
There are some people who will regard this adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical as an instant classic; I am not one of those people. What we get is a lumbering, stagebound production that seems to lamely dip into the fairytale parody that Shrek and other films tapped far more engagingly over a decade ago
The Voices (2014)
May 10, 2015Inside a Mentally Ill Man's Mind/Black Comedy
On the scale of weird movies, this is about as out there as it gets – Ryan Reynolds has conversations with his cat and dog who urge him to cut people's heads off, which continue to talk as he keeps them in his refrigerator. A mind-bogglingly warped film and quite brilliant in its dark funniness when you work out what is going on
Trolls (2016)
Feb 6, 2017Animation/Small Cute Creatures
A perfect example of all the things I hate about modern animation. Based around the popular Troll dolls, this is vapidly designed, content-free product based solely around simplistic storylines, manic slapstick sequences, song and dance numbers, and inane contemporary pop culture in-jokes
Stowaway (2021)
Apr 30, 2021Stowaway Aboard a Mars Mission
In the vein of realistically grounded space movies such as Gravity and The Martian, a solidly effective film concerning the crew of a Mars mission who discover a stowaway aboard
Woman of the Hour (2023)
Apr 11, 2025True Crime/Serial Killer on a Dating Show
Actress Anna Kendrick directs a film based on a true-life serial killer Rodney Alcala who appeared on tv’s The Dating Game