★☆☆☆☆ On occasion, a film sneaks out on release which really leaves you wondering why it even exists. Sol Tryon’s The Last Wake (2007) – starring Mike O’Connell and Jesse Eisenberg – an (apparently) darkly comic chronicle of a young man’s last day before he dies, is one such film. Continue Reading
★☆☆☆☆ With a ‘celebrity’ lineup comprising of such TV icons as Joe Pasquale, Russell Grant, Tony Blackburn and – of course – Keith ‘Cheggers’ Chegwin, it genuinely defies belief that Andy Thompson’s Kill Keith (2011) ever managed to see the light of day. There is no greater example of just Continue Reading
★★★★★ The American writer Chuck Klosterman once wrote how that are things which were over-rated (e.g. Adele), things that were under-rated (e.g. Cat Power) and things that were rated correctly (e.g. The Beatles) – and so it is with Monty Python. The comedy troupe, which began its TV series in Continue Reading
★★★★★ The most original documentary of 2011 comes to DVD replete with a selection of teasingly short but hugely moving extra features that extend the whole experience a few welcome minutes further. Music video director and photographer Alma Ha’rel ensures that Bombay Beach (2011) is almost unclassifiable, melding observational documentation, Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ It’s hard to categorise a piece like The Erotic Films of Peter De Rome (1973), released by the BFI for the first time on DVD to coincide with the 26th BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. Underground gay filmmaker Peter De Rome was making sensual Super 8 films Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ Roger Sargent’s documentation of 2010’s The Libertines reunion, There Are No Innocent Bystanders (2011) – following years of hostility and contempt between the band’s dual frontmen Carl Barât and Pete Doherty – will undoubtedly be a key piece of memorabilia for fans of the band. Yet aside from some Continue Reading