April 2012
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DocHouse Presents: Dragonslayer review
★★★★☆ Josh ‘Screech’ Sandoval is the wayward Californian stoner skater with the world on his shoulders and a head stuck in the clouds. Tristan Pattison’s feature debut Dragonslayer (2011) follows the accidental young father as he struggles to reignite his skating career. It is both heady and bleak to watch: an exquisite portrait of a…
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Interview: ‘Battleship’ London press conference
With the forthcoming release of Peter Berg’s Battleship (2012), an action-packed, frenzied sci-fi adaptation of Hasbro’s classic game of strategy, CineVue were invited to attend a London press conference in advance of the film hitting UK screens in April. With a cast full to the brim with up-and-coming talent, including John Carter star Taylor Kitsch…
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Special Feature: Bombay Sapphire survey reveals hunger for imagination
A recent survey of more than 3000 members of the international film community on the subject of modern filmmaking has revealed that 81 percent of those questioned believe mainstream audiences now have an appetite for more imaginative films, a trend that would seem supported by the surprising commercial success of Michel Hazanavicius’ Oscar-winning silent gem…
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Film Review: ‘Headhunters’
★★★★☆ One of the surprise hits at last year’s BFI London Film Festival, Morten Tyldum‘s Norwegian thriller Headhunters (2011) enjoys an unlikely but deserved UK release this week, in keeping with our country’s current affection for Scandinavian fiction. Adapted from Jo Nesbø’s novel of the same name, Tyldum‘s film is a twisty, unpredictable and darkly funny…
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Film Review: ‘La Grande Illusion’
★★★★★ Jean Renoir’s monumental 1937 masterpiece La Grand Illusion returns to cinemas this week for its 75th Anniversary, providing an opportunity to see one of the finest French films of all time. It’s easy to gush about Renoir’s classic; it won at the Venice Film Festival upon release and was the first foreign language film…
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Film Review: ‘A Cat in Paris’
★★★☆☆ At a time when 3D ‘experiences’ are being used to fleece a few extra pence of generous parents and numerous sequels and spin-offs of CGI family films are saturating cinema listings, it comes as a welcome breath of fresh air to see there are still films like Academy Award nominee A Cat in Paris…
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Film Review: ‘North Sea Texas’
★★★☆☆ Belgian director Bavo Defurne produces an enjoyable debut with first feature North Sea Texas (2011), an adaptation of the novel This Will Last by Yves Verbraeken, providing an arresting portrayal of a young boy’s first love. Pim (Jelle Florizoone) lives in a dead-end town on the coast of Belgium with his single mother –…
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Film Review: ‘A Gang Story’ (‘Les Lyonnais’)
★★★☆☆ French director Olivier Marchal (perhaps best known for 2004’s 36, starring acting heavyweights Daniel Auteil and Gerard Depardieu) returns to the fore with A Gang Story (Les Lyonnais), a Gallic gangster drama more akin to the glossy hyper-realism of Jean-François Richet’s Mesrine (2008) two-parter than Jacques Audiard’s supremely-paced A Prophet (2009).At the centre of Marchal’s…
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Film Review: ‘Return’
★★★☆☆ Following the recent influx of anti-war films with a more inwardly-looking perspective, Liza Johnson’s debut feature Return (2011) stars Linda Cardellini as a female soldier unable to reintegrate into society after the horrors she witnessed in Afghanistan, alongside Michael Shannon and John Slattery.On returning from a military tour of duty, Kelli (Cardellini) is excited…
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Film Review: ‘This Must Be the Place’
★★★★☆ For fifth feature This Must Be the Place (2011), director Paolo Sorrentino has ditched his native Italy and produced his first English language film, seeking out self-confessed fan Sean Penn after meeting him at Cannes in 2008 (where Sorrentino was premièring the critically-praised offbeat political thriller Il Divo). The actor was promptly signed up…
