John Service

  • Oscars 2025: who will win and should win?

    Oscars 2025: who will win and should win?

    On Sunday March 2, 2025, the great and the good of the film-making industry will descend on the Dolby Theatre in downtown Los Angeles for the 97th Academy Awards. Better known as the Oscars, they are the crown jewel in Hollywood’s awards season. Spanish-language musical crime drama Emilia Pérez leads the pack of nominees for this year’s Oscars. It has received 13 nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best International Feature Film.

    This year’s Oscars have also seen drama away from the silver screen. There have been accusations of politicking and homophobia by several nominees, as well as controversy over one Best Picture nominee’s use of artificial intelligence. So let’s look at the nominees in several of the higher-profile categories, and speculate who might triumph come Sunday night?

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  • Saturday Night review

    Saturday Night review

    There are few more recognisable brands in the world of entertainment than Saturday Night Live. Originally known as simply Saturday Night, the comedy variety show (which I’ll refer to as SNL going forward in this review) has been a stalwart of the American television landscape. In the almost half-century since SNL debuted, producer Lorne Michaels has provided a platform for a pantheon of beloved comedians including Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey and Kristen Wiig to name but a few. The success of SNL has also spawned a slew of hit comedy films including The Blues Brothers and Wayne’s World.

    Ahead of the fiftieth anniversary of SNL, director Jason Reitman and Sony Classics have produced the film Saturday Night. Reitman will be best known to audiences for directing the Oscar-nominated film Juno. He is also responsible for the two most recent entries in the Ghostbusters franchise. With Saturday Night, Jason Reitman provides viewers with an account of the events that occurred during the evening of the broadcast of the inaugural episode of SNL.

    Saturday Night was released in the United States back in October to coincide with the start of SNL’s fiftieth season. It has now just made its way across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom and Ireland, where it is currently showing in cinemas. So does Saturday Night deliver a fitting tribute to one of comedy’s most enduring brands?

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  • We Live in Time review

    It’s the start of a new year, and I’m incredibly excited about the coming year. Awards season for the film industry is in full swing. January alone sees UK audiences treated to major cinematic releases including Nosferatu, the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, and finally Adrian Brody’s near four-hour epic The Brutalist. However, before we get to any of those movies, we’re kicking things off with a review of We Live In Time!

    We Live In Time is a romantic comedy-drama starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh. The film explores the relationship between IT consultant Tobias Durand (Andrew Garfield), and chef Almut Brühl (Florence Pugh). Tobias works for the breakfast cereal company Weetabix, while Almut runs a Bavarian-themed restaurant. At the start of the film, the young couple are attending a hospital appointment. Here we learn that Almut has been diagnosed with stage three cancer. As the couple walk through the hospital car park, they engage in a frank conversation. Almut discloses to Tobias her fears about the coming cancer treatment. This includes concerns about how it will negatively impact her quality of life.

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  • The 50 Best Films of 2024 in the UK: 10 – 1

    The 50 Best Films of 2024 in the UK: 10 – 1

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  • The 50 Best Films of 2024 in the UK: 20-11

    The 50 Best Films of 2024 in the UK: 20-11

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  • The 50 Best Films of 2024 in the UK: 30-21

    The 50 Best Films of 2024 in the UK: 30-21

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  • The 50 Best Films of 2024 in the UK: 40-31

    The 50 Best Films of 2024 in the UK: 40-31

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  • The 50 Best Films of 2024 in the UK: 50-41

    The 50 Best Films of 2024 in the UK: 50-41

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  • Waxahatchee at The Empire Music, Belfast

    Waxahatchee at The Empire Music, Belfast

    The past few years have been a rollercoaster for the American band Waxahatchee. The group (fronted by founder and lead singer Katie Crutchfield) released their fifth album St. Cloud on March 27, 2020, just as the world entered lockdown. St. Cloud was a radical departure in sound for Waxahatchee. They dropped the lo-fi indie rock sound of their previous records, instead drawing inspiration from country music. This change in sound was in part due to chief songwriter Katie Crutchfield experiencing burnout from touring. This led to a struggle with alcoholism. Crutchfield retreated to the music of her youth for solace, finding newfound inspiration in the music of artists such as Lucinda Williams.

    Katie Crutchfield was eventually able to tour St. Cloud under the Waxahatchee moniker, albeit without her band. She finally toured St. Cloud for UK audiences in a limited capacity in the Spring of last year. This tour also acted as a mini-tour for her side project with singer-songwriter Jess Williams. The duo released a self-titled record together under the moniker of Plains in 2021. Waxahatchee’s 2023 UK tour saw Katie Crutchfield return to Belfast for the first in eight years, as she played the Black Box venue in the city’s Cathedral Quarter.

    Earlier this year Waxahatchee released their sixth studio album Tigers BloodT. They also announced a tour of the UK and Ireland for July of this year to promote the record. This tour included a stop-off in Belfast, with them playing at the Empire Music Hall. This live date was the group’s first live show in the city as a full-touring band since June 2015. As a long-time fan of Waxahatchee, I immediately bought a ticket. Here are my thoughts on the concert, and why it is likely to be one of my favourite gigs of the year come December.

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  • Challengers review – Zendaya aces it in tennis dramedy

    Challengers review – Zendaya aces it in tennis dramedy

    It’s the start of May, and we’re now officially entering the start of summer blockbuster season. Over the coming months, the major film studios will be releasing several high profile movies in theatres including A24’s Love Lies Bleeding, and Yorgos Lanthimos’ follow-up to the award winning Poor Things – Kinds of Kindness. Before all of these, one film staking a strong claim to the title of ‘Movie of the Summer’ is Challengers.

    Challengers is the new film from Italian director Luca Guadagnino and American writer Justin Kuritzkes. Luca is best known for 2017’s Call Me By Your Name, and perhaps more controversially, his Suspiria remake from 2018. Kuritzkes meanwhile is the husband of Celine Song, who directed last year’s brilliant Past Lives. With their latest release – Challengers – Guadagnino and Justin Kuritzkes turns their eyes to the world of professional tennis. The duo have created an engrossing dramedy that explores how the competitiveness of professional athletes can spill over into life off the court.

    I had the opportunity to see Challengers a couple of weeks ago at an advanced preview screening. Here are my thoughts on the film, and why it will appear on numerous ‘Best of’ list come the end of 2024.

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