With The Social Network (2010) and Holy Rollers (2010) star Jesse Eisenberg in attendance as lead judge, filmmakers Chris Bailey and Jake Naishwere’s mockumentary short The Keeper (2010) was announced as the winner of this year’s annual MOFILM Cannes 2011 […]
★★☆☆☆ Studio Ghibli is a name familiar to many, conjuring to the mind titles such as Princess Mononoke (1997), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) and My Neighbour Tortoro (1988). Their latest endeavour is an adaptation of Mary Norton’s children’s classic The […]
★☆☆☆☆ I have never really been comfortable with Captain America – star of new Marvel blockbuster Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) – as a superhero. Unlike Batman, Spider-Man or the majority of his The Avengers [2012] posse, there is […]
★★★★☆ Last night, CineVue attended the UK premiere of Pedro Almodóvar’s Palme d’Or nominee The Skin I Live In (2011), which also launched this year’s Film4 Summer Screen season at Somerset House. With an introduction from Almodóvar himself and stunning […]
Declarations of Hollywood’s severe decline may be well-founded (according to Nick James at Sight and Sound, the top performing films at the box office over the10-12 June weekend were all sequels), but never fear – the ‘Scala Forever’ film season […]
★☆☆☆☆ When reading initial comments about Peter Smith’s 1985 No Surrender, written by Alan Bleasdale, all signs seemed to point to promising; hilarious premise, politically edgy content and a smattering of dark undertones captured amongst grainy Liverpudlian backdrops.The foot of […]
★★★☆☆ Even if the films of Ealing Studios are not as widely viewed as they once were, any cinephile can probably describe the tone of their output: an easygoing atmosphere; charmingly British, often explicitly patriotic; and whether rural or urban […]
★★★☆☆ A quiet highlight of last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Love Like Poison (2010) is the debut feature of Katell Quillévéré and sees the director delving into a meaty concoction of Catholicism, domestic discontentment and the temptations of young love, […]
★★☆☆☆ Evil Rising (also known as ‘Sauna’ [2008]), the second feature from award winning Finnish director Antti-Jussi Annila, is a challenging horror film with a heavy, exceptionally well-achieved eerie atmosphere that doesn’t let up. Unfortunately, despite his efforts towards evoking supernatural […]
★★★★☆ It’s hard to think of where to begin with a discussion of Alain Resnais’ incredibly powerful Night and Fog (1955). Is it appropriate to recommend a film that operates on such a seminal level that it transcends cinematic experience […]
★★★★★ More than 50 years after winning the Special Jury Prize at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, Alain Resnais’ first feature, Hiroshima Mon Amour is being rereleased by the British Film Institute as part of a retrospective of the director’s […]
★★☆☆☆ The Big Picture (2010) makes Swiss cheese look structurally sound. The central problem is the plot which, as anyone who watches a lot of films know, must be good if you’re trying to make a traditional, linear thriller. The […]
★★★★☆ Hot on the heals of gross-out comedy Bridesmaids (2011) comes Seth Gordon’s Horrible Bosses (2011). Friends Nick, Dale and Kurt share a common problem: they all hate their bosses. Nick (Jason Bateman) works for tyrannical Mr Harken (Kevin Spacey), […]
★★★★☆ Mike Mills’ Beginners (2010) is an incredibly intelligent and sensitive film; it is well made, carefully thought out and has bags of quirky humour. The plot focus on a graphic designer Oliver whose world is shaken to its core […]
★★★★☆ In celebration of its 60th anniversary, the truly brilliant British heist film directed by Charles Crichton, The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) has been digitally restored, rendering its image just as sharp as its Oscar-winning screenplay. The story centres upon […]
★★★★☆ The Hogwarts Quidditch pitch dwindles in flames. Death Eaters mercilessly attack students with hexes and killing curses in the blazing courtyard. Stone soldiers battle giant trolls whilst fending off a huge army of bloodthirsty wizards. Harry Potter, our haggard […]
Rose Bosch’s The Round Up (2010) retells the story of the infamous Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup during the Second World War where over 13,000 Parisian Jews, including 4000 children, were dragged out of their homes and forced to endure the inhumane […]
★☆☆☆☆ Fresh off a purportedly successful festival run, James Eaves’ Bane (2009) is an unfocused, inexcusably poor horror movie that fails to raise even a single hair or goosebump throughout its tedious and overextended two hour duration. Centring around four […]
