★★★★☆ With queer cinema experiencing something of a renaissance in recent years, the 2012 release of Encounters: Four groundbreaking classics of gay cinema – made up of short films by Lloyd Reckord, Andy Milligan, Bill Douglas and Peter De Rome – feels somewhat essential. Curated by the British Film Institute, Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Director Na Hong-jin’s 2009 debut The Chaser, along with the works of Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook and Kim Ji-woon helped thrust the South Korean movie industry into the consciousness of Western audiences. However, a recent spate of mediocre and uninspired genre films has started to flood the market, threatening Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Nick Murphy’s The Awakening (2011) is set in 1920s England and tells the chilling tale of a supposedly haunted boarding school. A very British affair, the film was shot on location in the UK and features a small cast of some of our finest exports in the form of Continue Reading
★★★★☆ There has been a sudden resurgence of interest in the unique cinema of Greek auteur Theo Angelopoulos since his tragic death earlier this year. His films are notoriously an acquired taste and, despite having a Palme d’Or and numerous other feted awards to his name, is rarely mentioned in Continue Reading
★★★★☆ British director Andrea Arnold’s uniquely visual adaptation of Emily Brönte’s Wuthering Heights (2011) was deplored by many for its slow pace, sparse dialogue and lean narrative. Yet it is these exact ‘criticisms’ that adversely make Arnold’s film one of the most stylish, original period dramas of recent years. For Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Loosely based on the story of Will Reiser (friend of producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg), Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in Jonathon Levine’s 50/50 (2011), a tentatively-labelled comedy about cancer. At just 27, Adam (Gordon-Levitt) is diagnosed with a rare form of spinal cancer and is subsequently forced to reassess Continue Reading