DVD Review: ‘Super 8’
★★★★☆ Written and directed by J.J. Abrams and with Steven Spielberg as its producer, Super 8 (2011) tells the story of a group of...
★★☆☆☆ “An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,” Percy Shelley once wrote in his sonnet England in 1819. He was firing his barbs at King George III but the words could just as well be used for any number of English monarchs including Henry VIII.
★★★★★ Turkish master director Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns to the Cannes Croisette with About Dry Grasses, a wonderful wintry meditation on male fragility and the way we often make our own hells and then deceive ourselves that we’re trapped.
★★★★☆ From sub-Saharan Africa to Afghanistan, Syria to Iraq and Iran, the climate crisis, drought, war, and oppression has created a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. It is treated as an ethical conundrum, but it isn’t. Either we wish to save those who are in danger of dying, or all our talk of human rights is just so much hot air. This is the core concern of Green Border.
★★★★☆ With Luca Guadagnino’s terrific Challengers, the acclaimed director of Call Me By Your Name brings us the sub-genre we never knew we needed: the erotic tennis thriller.
★★☆☆☆ Directors Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s “Abigail” mashes up crime caper and monster movie, but fails to deliver fear or humor. Spoilery trailers and unoriginal characters overshadow promising elements, resulting in a dull, lifeless experience lacking creativity and wit.
★★☆☆☆ Maïwenn’s French period drama Jeanne du Barry is the perfect opening salvo for the 76th Cannes Film Festival. It is as glitzy and gaudy as the festival itself, with its vacuous politics drowned out by the thunderous sound of it slapping its own back.
★★★★☆ Written and directed by J.J. Abrams and with Steven Spielberg as its producer, Super 8 (2011) tells the story of a group of...
★★★☆☆ One of few box office successes to stand out from a crop of misfiring summer blockbusters, Rupert Wyatt’s Rise of the Planet of...
★★★★☆ Winner of the Special Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, director Mike Cahill’s celestial cinematic voyage Another Earth (2011) is a...
Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) received its European premiere tonight in London’s Leicester Square amidst wind, rain and the cheers...
★★★☆☆ This August saw the sad death of prolific Chilean director Raoul Ruiz, whose last complete film Mysteries of Lisbon (2010) – based upon...
★☆☆☆☆ Few occasions hold as much emotional significance in people’s minds as the end of another year, and few moments are able to elicit...
★★★★☆ Almost a decade after DreamWorks Animation first released Shrek (2001), the billion dollar franchise’s quality control hit an all time low with the...
With his shock of white hair and chat show friendly exuberance, the late cult director Ken Russell was a recognisable and entertaining presence throughout...