Film reviews and more
Last weekend saw the opening of The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer (2010) starring John Malkovich. Loosely speaking, it is a play that merges baroque opera with dialogue telling the autobiographical tale if Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger. The play has met with critical success and is touring until November when […]
Donor Unknown (2010) charts the seemingly unique story of 20 year old JoEllen Marsh and her burning curiosity to know more about her anonymous donor father. After discovering an online registry which connects donor-conceived children, she manages to track down a half-sister in New York and a further 12 half-siblings from across the United States.Jerry Rothwell’s film […]
★★★☆☆ Spike Lee’s last feature film, Miracle at St. Anna (2008), fits perfectly into his catalogue in whilst also challenging his unarguable capabilities as a director, in his deciding to create a fictionalised account of black GIs fighting the Axis Powers in Italy in the Second World War.T he narrative is initiated when […]
★★★★☆ Depending upon your source, reactions to Shion Sono’s latest opus Cold Fish (2010) has drawn a wide range of divergent repsonses. It has been called outrageous and pointlessly violent or ground breaking, gripping and challenging. Whichever side of this argument one might place it under, Shion Sono’s Cold Fish is certainly not […]
★★★☆☆ Fantasy seems to be Nicolas Cage’s realm as of late. After fiddling with spells and dragons in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010), he is now journeying back to medieval times to deal with magic again – this time of a black type – in Dominic Sena’s Season of the Witch (2011). Set in […]
This weekend Sky Movies Comedy/HD celebrates the 50th birthday of one of Britain’s best-loved comedians – Ricky Gervais – with a triple bill of his films on Saturday 25th June. Like him or loathe him, he played an important role in bringing about a new era of comedy in the noughties and has […]
★★★★☆ There are two types of main characters in the world of romantic comedies: the protagonist is generally either someone we like to be jealous of – for their enviable looks, perfect job and a social life worthy of Kim Kardashian – or, a complete loser who we can laugh at and pity […]
★★☆☆☆ British director Kelly Smith’s Don’t Let Him In (2011) is a strange movie. Starting from the title, which echoes that of Matt Reeve’s vampire horror-remake Let Me In (2010) – you’ll be forgiven for wondering whether this is a parody. However, Don’t Let Him In transpires to be a serious and gore-packed […]
★★★☆☆ Based upon Nicholas Monserrat’s 1951 novel of the same name, The Cruel Sea (1953), reissued now for the first time on Blu-ray, follows the officers of a British naval ship during the Second World War. A production of Michael Balcon’s Ealing Studios, the 1953 film is rarely included in the pantheon of […]
I watched Danny Steinmann’s Savage Streets (1984), knowing nothing about it besides what I’d seen in the trailer, with a friend who admitted to “not understanding” this kind of film – what he’d earlier described as “shitty exploitation”, films which aren’t ‘proper’. Watching the film, he laughed and gasped consistently, thus proving that there […]
★★☆☆☆ With a title that equally works as a synopsis, Jason Eisener’s Hobo with a Shotgun (2011) is an uber-cool and suitably gratuitous homage to the exploitation movies of the 70s and 80s. Starring veteran actor Rutger Hauer, the film does exactly what it says on the tin; a homeless vigilante, despondent with […]
Being asked to review Bored to Death – Season One whilst I am eight episodes into Game of Thrones has meant that I’ve broken my rule of never allowing myself to get involved in two HBO shows simultaneously. Way back when I attempted to watch the The Wire and Six Feet Under under […]
It has been little over half a year since the last Sheffield Doc/Fest, and while the impetus for the move to June was somewhat undermined by the sodden outdoor screenings, the sheer breadth of films and events more than warrant its return. Morgan Spurlock’s latest effort, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011), opened […]
★★★☆☆ David O. Russell’s boxing biopic The Fighter (2010) may not have won as many Academy Awards as it would have liked to, but the awards it did win (Best Supporting Actor gong for Christian Bale and it’s sister statue for Melissa Leo) were rightly deserved – although Geoffrey Rush’s performance as Lionel […]
Sheffield Doc/Fest has rightly won a reputation for being one of the most important aspects of the documentary film calendar for industry professionals and fans of the form alike. This year it had moved its slot from November to June and did not suffer from the change one iota, teaming with delegates and […]
★★★★☆ There are so many reasons to love François Ozon’s latest film, Potiche (2011). It possesses jollity, a strong sense of playfulness and boasts the fact that it reunites the much-loved belle dame of French cinema Catherine Deneuve with the larger than life Gerard Depardieu (her last role was opposite him in the […]
★★★☆☆ We may only be halfway through the year, but it is my firm belief that the remainder of 2011 will not see a more divisive or bizarre offering as Jodie Foster’s The Beaver (2011). This really is one of the most unbalanced, incohesive, disturbing, vomit-inducing, yet strangely captivating movies I have seen […]
★★★☆☆ Aspiring illustrator Graeme Willy (Simon Pegg) and wannabe sci-fi writer Clive Gollings (Nick Frost) are in geek paradise when they visit Comic-Con in San Diego. In an attempt to get the most out of their American Southwest excursion and add a perfect addition to their recent visit to the sci-fi and fantasy […]