★★★★★ The label ‘master filmmaker’ is often overused, but in the case of prolific Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi, it is totally justified. Ranked among the likes of Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirô Ozu, Mizoguchi had a directing career spanning 33 years and over 50 films, beginning with what he considered his Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Made on a shoestring budget and self-distributed by debut feature writer and director Bryan O’Neil after he became disillusioned by various distribution studios, Booked Out (2012) is almost the textbook definition of independent British filmmaking. However, instead of focusing upon violence, rape or kitchen sink realism, this slice of Continue Reading
★★★★★ Now sadly infamous for being the last completed feature film by the late Chilean directorial master Raúl Ruiz (25 July 1941 – 19 August 2011), Mysteries of Lisbon (2010) is a sprawling, intoxicating 19th century historical epic adapted from the masterful novel Mistérios de Lisboa by literary figure Camilo Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Having committed the apparent cardinal sin of never reading Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel of the same name (in full, at least), Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre (2011) – starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender – serves as a fine re-introduction to the text, served up with some truly impressive cinematography Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Destined to be broadcast on Sunday afternoons from now until the end of days, Oscar-nominee The Help (2011) is a sweet, involving and exceptionally well-acted civil rights yarn that is, thankfully, more interested in entertaining the audience rather than painting a gritty, realistic picture of the lives of African Continue Reading
