1 Life on the Limit (2013)

Director: Paul Crowder Starring: Michael Fassbender, Niki Lauda, James Hunt, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher. USA.1h 52m

An insanely personal insight into the creation and golden years of formula one, the world’s most glamourous and dangerous sport, the characters who have pioneered the safety and key changes in the sport are honored in a well crafted documentary.

Being less on the side of stats and figures, dates and events, the main focus of the film is to connect some of the lifelong players’ memories of the sport and some of the fallen heroes with a humbling dedication to their hours of daring death on every corner.

Filth (2013)

Director: Jon S. Baird
Starring: James McAvoy, Jamie Bell, Eddie Marsan, Imogen Poots, Gary Lewis, Brian McCardie, Jim Broadbent, Kate Dickie, Shauna Macdonald .UK. 1h 37m

It seems to have taken the british public a while to regain their footing after Trainspotting hit the big screens, the movie became the voice of a generation, but while Welshe’s entire book collection began flying off the shelves it was a while before another book was transformed from paper to screen. There were a few shorts, a couple of TV movies but after such a success and literally acclaim it baffles why there was such a wait. The original book’s atmosphere and 90’s risque narrative seems pale when released 15 into the future.

Catch Hell (2014)

Director: Ryan Phillippe
Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Tig Notaro, Joyful Drake, Stephen Luis Grush. USA. 1h 38m.

Ryan Phillippe owns everything in his directorial debut, written, directed and playing the lead in this bizarre and sentimental kidnapping drama. As much as the film could be sized down to a massive ego trip, as everything revolves around Ryan, it’s also a testament to the art of one man making an independent movie, and it’s a great attempt as a debut but it does seem to drag out a pretty simple story, it still delivers something unique and different to a traditionally tough genre.

Paranormal Diaries : Clophill (2013)

Director: Kevin Gates, Michael Bartlett
Starring: Kevin Gates, Michael Bartlett, Criselda Cabitac UK. 1h 28m

There’s been a big trend in making found footage movies, where the cast head out to investigate something unusual and paranormal, only to find themselves running around in the darkness screaming with terror, and if done well this chilling concept can really get under the skin of a lot of audience participants, however if done with the wrong pace and little care, then the unsettling can become uninteresting.

Burton and Taylor (2013)

Director: Richard Laxton
Starring: Helena Bonham Carter, Dominic West .UK. 1h 30m

This glamorized TV movie is the love child of director Richard Laxton, who cleverly used a poignant part of life and relationship between Liz Taylor and Richard Burton to highlight their turbulent relationship and striking personalities.

Set in 1983, the film revolves around Burton and Taylor as they attempt to join forces to star in Noel Coward’s stage play “Private Lives”. After years of marriage, their own addictive personalities and the pressures from the press, they begin to lose their stubborn protective barriers and find some kind of path to recovery together.

In Fear (2013)

Director: Jeremy Lovering Starring:Iain De Caestecker, Alice Englert, Allen Leech. UK, Ireland. 1h 25m

There’s nothing new about a couple going for a fun thrilled romantic break in Ireland, it’s not like the market is swamped and this is a genre movie but with crackers like From the Dark (2014), which sees a more established couple trying to revive a strained relationship while descending on a village overrun by hard to kill vampires, along with this creature feature there’s a brilliant psychological tale Travellers (2011) that involved a group of city boys running into some Irish travellers but until a few magical 360 plot spinning reveal it’s hard to know who’s the worst set of characters. So with these already out and about, for seasoned horror fans, this movie initially kicks off as more of the same, or is it? Jeremy Lovering uses these others as stepping stones and red herrings, helping to throw his audience off and In Fear manages to fool and chill constantly from beginning to end.

Locke (2013)

Sometimes in TV series will have an episode where it’s all limited to one room, it’s usually done to keep costs down, but bottle episodes are exercise in writing and stretching characters out a little giving them some room for growth, in a way Locke is a massive bottle episode in a saga we didn’t know we wanted to be a part of.

Director : Steven Knight
Starring : Tom Hardy. UK. 1h 24m

This stunning British drama, cleverly written and directed by Steven Knight and in turn is expertly executed by Tom Hardy. On the surface, what looks like a jerk driving his car while trying to get someone to finish a job he’s just walked out on (involving a lucrative building plot) , cruises into a powerful drama of a man trying to face up to his fuck ups with minimal fallout and he despite all the pain and hardships, he just wants to get the damn concrete poured.

Sometimes in TV series will have an episode where it’s all limited to one room, it’s usually done to keep costs down, but bottle episodes are exercise in writing and stretching characters out a little giving them some room for growth, in a way Locke is a massive bottle episode in a saga we didn’t know we wanted to be a part of.

World War Z (2013)

Director: Marc Forster
Starring: Brad Pitt, .USA/UK. 1h 56m

For every great book there is a highly anticipated and terrible movie. Even the “good” movies fail to hit all of the high notes of a novel, but spending 2 hours watching one person’s perspective of something that might have taken you a week or month to read will never compare. At least World War Z was very open that it was never an attempt to “be” the book but just to give a flavour of one of the books ethos, but more importantly for studio this was going to be the biggest grossing movie with the best stars and have fancy graphics and the world was going to love it.

Willow Creek (2013)

Director: Bobcat Goldthwaite
Starring: Alexie Gilmore, Bryce Johnson .USA. 1h 17m

Set in Humboldt County, California, and filmed over 5 days, a film now commonly known as the Blairquatch Project emerges from the forest to (not) wow it’s audience with the adventures of a Bigfoot enthusiast who drags his girlfriend into the wild to hunt bigfoot for his birthday treat.

All Hallowes Eve (2013)

Director: Damien Leone
Starring: Katie Maguire, Catherine A. Callahan, Marie Maser .USA. 1h 23m

I won’t even attempt to hide the fact that I get so confused with the history of Art the Clown. I vaguely remember seeing clips of him appearing in YouTube mixes and totally missed Terrifier (2011) which seems to have been remade in 2016, after this unsettling anthology All Hallows Eve, which successfully captures the spirit of Halloween in a very disturbing way and sets itself apart from all the other spooky anthologies.