We Don't Need Two Metaphors

Now almost a decade into his feature filmmaking career, perennial London Film Festival favourite Ben Wheatley returns with Happy New Year, Colin Burstead : perhaps his warmest film to date and a perfect sweary antidote to the usual festive offerings. Colin Burstead (an excellent Neil Maskell) has hired a grand Dorset castle to bring his family together for a New Year's party. Like every family, they don't always get along but the Burstead are perhaps more resentful than most. So far so Agatha Christie but there's no chance of the butler being murdered here as the Burstead family are far too embittered to actually murder anyone; it’s as if their resentment for each other would only be exceeded by the resentment towards someone who no longer had to endure the curt and strained conversations.

Beards, bullets and bloody-minded idiots collide in Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire : a lean, rollicking cinematic jolt to the senses. An abandoned Boston warehouse is the meeting point for an arms deal between Irishman Chris (Cillian Murphy) and cocksure South African Verne (Sharlto Copley); each accompanied by a band of merry henchmen and mediators to ensure the deal goes smoothly. After rumblings of deceit and unsavoury transgressions emerge, the palpable tension is broken by gunfire and a chaotic fracas in the rubble ensues.

Films Of 2012 - No. 5 Sightseers (Dir. Ben Wheatley) Not content with reinventing the British gangster film in Down Terrace and shredding everybody's nerves in Kill List , Ben Wheatley's 3rd film celebrates two ever present British traditions: caravanning and funny Brummie accents. Despite her mother's best protests, Tina sets off on a romantic holiday with boyfriend Chris. Manned with their caravan and an itinerary which takes in some idyllic areas of northern Britain, what could possibly spoil their trip? Quite a lot, it turns out, as some psychopathic tendencies start to take over. Sightseers is a film that is as dark as it is funny, quite often at the same time. One unfortunate incident that is told in flashback is horrifyingly grisly and yet so ridiculous that you can't help but laugh. Wheatley and D.P. Laurie Rose show the British countryside as the beautiful place it still is, but crucially the visual style changes to reflect the ever darkening ton...