Skeletons

You know when a film opens with the two leads discussing the moral merits and ambiguity of Rasputin v's the Kennedy's that you're in for a treat! Two soild lead performances and an excellent support performance from Jason Isaacs ensure that "Skeletons" was probably the best British film of 2010 behind "Four Lions". Whitfield's excellent direction and script deserve credit too, and succeeds in playing with the supernatural in an original, whimsical and intelligent way. Recommended.

The finest debut from a british director I've seen in years. The script is fresh, moving and funny; the film has a coherent look all of its own and the cast of unknowns are uniformly excellent. More please Nick Whitfield!

Brilliant mix of comedy and originality, even powerful toward the end. So clear and precise in the delivery with plenty of odd quirks to keep the interest high.

Interesting and original debut. The soundtrack - Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares - is a beautiful and eerie piece of music that I urge everyone to have a listen to. Ed Gaughan's Bulgarian accent is awfully funny, but he should be applauded for giving his best. The film starts promisingly with a strong first half, but afterwards suffers from usual genre clichés and underdevelopment of the plot.

When it starts, it almost seems like an attempt to cross Pulp Fiction with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but it quickly grows into its own entity with a unique brand of humor. Cinematography is beautiful and the ending is perfect. I look forward to Nick Whitfield's career.

Much enjoyed. Based on the description I was expecting more traditional exorcists, but that's hardly the case. Certainly worth a look.

Quirky but not particularly satisfying on any level. Casting was ok, music interesting, locations not great. The concept could have worked but the memory stones thing felt cheap and gimimcky. The writing tried too hard to make itself mysterious. All in all, some things worked but not at the same time. A hit and miss affair.

Very nice. Original, well made, with lots of attention for imagery and atmosphere. Feel good exorcist movie!

Liked the idea and humour, but the ending wasn't good.

Eternal Sunshine of the Summer Wine

Weird, very offbeat but extremely slowly paced

Top badass moment? Some surprisingly good technobabble; cold channels, corpse roads, bypasses, extractions, psychic detritus; you'll never view a wardrobe in the same way again, either. A unique and slightly mind fucking film, it's so British that watching it's like drowning in Marmite. However, I was shocked by the scene where the main protagonists stomp through a woodland full of Dog’s Mercury, trampling down this interesting, ancient woodland indicator. No cats, chainsaws or decapitations.

Isaacs is great in this refreshingly original movie. It eventually sort of lost me but I figure it deserves a second go at some point.

Amazing world-building but no real story. Might have worked better as a TV series. The wonderfully innovative first 15 minutes or so fail to develop into anything halfway meaningful. A part of the reason is its desparate gesticulations at the arthouse awards (e.g., pixie/goth girl who reawakens a sense of purpose in an alienated, jaded man). Instead of pursuing its flight of fancy to something interesting, it opts for some vaguely Ameliesque family-relationships drama.

Quirky would be a good word with which to describe this little gem. Quirky cast, quirky script, quirky settings...which is probably why the "normal" ending felt awkwardly out of place. Still, it didn't ruin an otherwise excellent movie.