Shameless Self Expression

Riz Ahmed plays a heavy metal drummer and currently clean and sober drug addict, whose girlfriend is the lead singer of the band (Olivia Cooke). Ahmed starts to notice a problem with his hearing, affecting his ability to do his job as a drummer. Before long, his hearing is almost totally gone and Cooke (who has her own struggles in life) is worried that Ahmed’s going to relapse on top of that. He’s taken to a secluded rehab centre for the deaf run by Joe (Paul Raci), and has to adhere to the facility’s strict rules including no contact with Cooke. Meanwhile, Ahmed is trying to gather the money to pay for a cochlear implant. Lauren Ridloff plays a deaf school teacher, whilst Mathieu Amalric plays Cooke’s father.   Some rather wrong-headed (or at least poorly explained) messaging doesn’t stop this film from being one of my favourite films of 2020. In the end I think what’s very good about the film is good enough to make it a real winner. However, as a disabled person myself and t...

A man wearing dark sunglasses (Paul Birch) arrives at a doctor’s surgery looking for a blood transfusion. He refuses to get a mandatory blood test and after some back and forth he hypnotises the doctor and commands him to assign a nurse (Beverly Garland) to move into his house and administer blood transfusions periodically. The man is actually no man at all, Birch is an alien whose species is dying out and in need of blood. He plans to use a portal to send blood supply back to his home planet. Jonathan Haze plays a shady character Birch employs as his chauffeur and servant, Dick Miller plays a vacuum salesman.   Running a little over an hour in length, this 1957 Roger Corman ( “It Conquered the World” , “A Bucket of Blood” , “The Wild Angels” ) sci-fi film is all killer, no filler. The cast is tops, with Paul Birch giving a fun, unusual performance as the visiting alien. Beverly Garland and Jonathan Haze are solid too, with the latter playing a par...