Science fiction is creeping into more mainstream films
Anne Billson
Science fiction isn't all 'talking squids in space'. And its creep into mainstream cinema is everywhere from Never Let Me Go to Midnight in Paris | Anne Billson
Twilight caters to the sexual fantasies of teenage girls. I'm not saying in a good way, but there's not much else at the cinema that does, writes Anne Billson
Ghost movies – like The Awakening – are best when they give up the ghost
Anne Billson
Forget all the collapsing staircases, revolving rooms, daft CGI and haunted hair-dos. You barely need to show anything to make a truly petrifying ghost movie
I'd like to see action films regress to an epoch when swords were as prevalent as guns, or hop forward to a time when firearms don't work, writes Anne Billson
Anne Billson: By warning us in advance that Bruce Willis or Tom Cruise isn't going to save the day, Lars Von Trier's Melancholia joins the fine tradition of films that preview their own coming attractions
Long takes make the viewer an active participant rather than a passive sponge, encouraged to scour the frame, or worry about what might enter into it, writes Anne Billson
If a female contract killer isn't prepared to smuggle herself into the villain's lair disguised as a scantily clad hooker, the movie world isn't interested
I swear movie anachronisms are on the mega-increase
Anne Billson
Anne Billson: I'm no purist, but it really takes me out of a film to hear the Narnia kids saying 'Sorted!' or Alice in Wonderland using terms like 'bonkers'
Anne Billson: Adopting another's identity is seen as a melodramatic trick of the movies, like the evil twin in soap operas – but aren't we all imposture experts?
The Beaver isn't the only movie that should have taken the horror route – so many comedies are just a sliver away from being terrifying psycho thrillers
How film's one-liners lost their innocence with Apocalypse Now
Anne Billson
A well-turned phrase can go a long way towards cementing a movie's cult status, but Apocalypse Now marks the point at which film quotes became self-conscious
