Film Review: Warm Bodies

(Published on Lost In The Multiplex)

Directed by Jonathan Levine, Warm Bodies follows the developing relationship between a zombie named R (Nicholas Hoult) and a human called Julie (Teresa Palmer), who is the daughter of the leader of the human survivor group, Colonel Grigio (John Malkovich). After saving her from an attack that takes the life of her boyfriend Perry (Dave Franco) and leaving behind her best friend Nora (Analeigh Tipton), R takes a sudden attraction to Julie that his corpse-like self doesn’t quite know how to handle. As Julie begins to see that R is different from the other zombies, the two form a special relationship that set in motion a sequence of events that might transform their entire lifeless world for the better.

Film Review: 50/50

(Published in Issue 4 of my publication In Retrospect)

Directed by Jonathan Levine, 50/50 is a comedy-drama loosely based on the life of screenwriter Will Reiser. When 27-year-old Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) goes to the doctors about back pain, he finds out that he has a rare type of spinal cancer, and must undergo chemotherapy in order to reduce the tumour. His best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen) attempts to take his mind of his life-threatening illness with alcohol, medicinal weed and sex, whilst his girlfriend Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) slowly starts becoming detached. As part of his recovery, Adam must also see an inexperienced psychologist Katherine (Anna Kendrick) and befriends two older chemo patients receiving treatment alongside him. But will his struggles overpower his determination to beat cancer? Or will the help of a seemingly irrelevant part of his treatment convince him to stop being selfish?