(no title)

Featured

(PINNED) SPEECHLESS: An Interactive Narrative Game I made inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s ‘Hush’

I’ve been wanting to learn some coding for a while now, and test myself with a decent creative writing project.

So I figured I’d retell one of my favourite episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a piece of interactive fiction. After a lot of Googling and trial-and-error, I’ve finally finished it!

Created in Twine and now hosted over at Itch.io, click here to play Speechless.

His Dark Materials S02E02: The Cave REVIEW

Tonight’s episode of His Dark Materials struggled a little with pacing and, admittedly, lost me a little with a meandering storyline focusing on the Magisterium that brought back painful memories of some of the weaker aspects of the first season. However, the introduction of Mary Malone (Simone Kirby) was fantastic and there was a lot of set-up for some powerful scenes in the future – so I’m optimistic about what’s to come.

His Dark Materials S02E01: The City of Magpies REVIEW

Season 2 of His Dark Materials has finally premiered, boasting more impressive visuals than the previous season, great set designs, and improved pacing that has left me seriously excited for what may be in store for fans of the series over the course of this new season.

Having reread The Subtle Knife over the course of this summer, episode one was immediately satisfying as it showed me a Cittàgazze exactly like the one I pictured in my mind. If there’s one thing I’m the most pleased with about HDM, it’s the way the show is consistently succeeding in bringing my imagination to life in front of me with such accuracy and detail.

TIFF 2020: LIMBO REVIEW

Ben Sharrock’s Limbo was a fantastic ending to my run of TIFF movies this year. With beautiful cinematography and an excellent cast of uplifting, eccentric supporting characters, Limbo still manages to be fun despite the crux of the story revolving around the heavy subject of Syrian refugees awaiting letters about their refugee status on a remote Scottish island.

The film stars Amir El-Masry as Omar, a serious, down-trodden refugee who makes frequent calls back home and seems pained by the life he has left behind. Were Limbo to focus solely on his character, this would be a very dull, somber feature. But he is surrounded by eccentricity at every turn: quirky cultural-awareness course leaders; local shop owners who eat raw onions like apples; flatmates obsessed with Friends and Freddie Mercury; local tour-operators dressed up as dolphins. It’s the supporting characters that help make Limbo more than the sum of its parts, and give the entire movie real charm and identity.

TIFF 2020: PIECES OF A WOMAN REVIEW

Pieces Of A Woman stars Shia LaBeouf and Vanessa Kirby as a couple dealing with severe trauma, and opens with such an incredible, intense first thirty minutes (most of which being one single long take) that I’m pretty sure I just outright stopped blinking as I watched their evening unfold. Unfortunately the remainder of the feature never quite hits these highs again, but I’m still left thinking about that opening long after the credits have rolled.

TIFF 2020: 76 DAYS REVIEW

Hao Wu’s documentary is a glimpse into our planet as it changed, filmed in secrecy during the 76-day lockdown in Wuhan, China during the initial outbreak of the coronavirus.

76 Days focuses on the frontline medical workers during the lockdown and their frantic struggle to keep up with a new virus. The film grips you immediately with its opening, as a frontline professional begs to say goodbye to her deceased father whilst other workers hold her back, needing her to remain composed so she can continue to work with them.

TIFF 2020: CONCRETE COWBOY REVIEW

Ricky Staub’s Concrete Cowboy is an intriguing concept about a niche subculture in northern Philadelphia, but a feature that would have been far more effective as a straight-up documentary than an uneventful drama that struggles to maintain any sense of momentum.

Idris Elba and Stranger Things’ Caleb McLaughlin star as an estranged father-son duo, with Cole (McLaughlin) forced to live with his father after being expelled from school. Cole is thrown into work at the city’s stables, whilst trying to reconnect with a former friend, bad influence ‘Smush’ (Jharrel Jerome).

TIFF 2020: THE FATHER REVIEW

The Father is the gripping, heartbreaking debut feature from Florian Zeller about a man’s battle with dementia and the loss of identity. Anthony Hopkins stars in a performance that will surely earn him an Oscar nomination, as both he and the audience are consistently forced to question what is real and what is not.

Framed from the perspective of Anthony (Hopkins) as he struggles with his mental state and refuses to lose his independence, Zeller disorients viewers through repeating conversations, shifting surroundings, and even having multiple characters play the same role. By the time the credits roll, you can piece together what really happened and when – if you aren’t too busy crying / scared of getting dementia yourself, obviously.

TIFF 2020: I CARE A LOT REVIEW

J Blakeson’s I Care A Lot is a stylish, gripping thriller that is thoroughly entertaining throughout – pitting a conwoman against her toughest mark yet and letting the audience watch as each side continuously one-ups the other.

Rosamund Pike stars as Marla Grayson, a self-confessed lion amongst the sheep who cons her way into becoming the legal guardian of vulnerable isolated elderly people, helping herself to their estates while she cares for them in corrupt facilities. Her perfect scheme runs into trouble when she aims her sights at the wrong target – Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest). It sounds awfully dark, but I Care A Lot is so, so much fun to watch – it is, at its core, a game of cat and mouse; the tone is kept relatively light despite the subject matter, with fun dialogue, stylish direction, and an incredible wardrobe department.

TIFF 2020: SUMMER OF 85 REVIEW

François Ozon’s Summer of 85 is a French LGBTQ+ coming-of-age movie that chooses to gloss over the ‘coming out’ phase of the characters and instead focus on their relationships themselves, irrespective of sexuality. It’s refreshing to see LGBT features like this, that don’t dwell on the characters orientation – even more refreshing that this feature is set in the 80s and still doesn’t feature excessive homophobia or acceptance issues.