DVD Review: ‘Journey 2: The Mysterious Island’
★★☆☆☆ Fans of Dwayne Johnson (and yes, there are some) do not necessarily appreciate him for his acting skills, which is just as well...
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.
★★★★☆ In Alex Garland’s Civil War, a group of journalists embark on a road trip to interview the US President amidst a second American Civil War, while exploring media’s dehumanizing relationship with violence.
★★★★☆ Having won the Jury Prize in 2013 for Like Father, Like Son and the Palme d’Or in 2018 with Shoplifters, Cannes favourite and Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda returns with Monster, a masterful work of intricate storytelling, complemented by a lovely score by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto.
★★★★★ Theodor Adorno famously wrote that poetry was not possible after Auschwitz, but is cinema? Billy Wilder certainly thought so, getting footage from the camps as evidence as much as anything else. Steven Spielberg, Claude Lanzmann, Alain Resnais and Roberto Benigni have all with differing degrees of success tried their hands.
★★☆☆☆ Fans of Dwayne Johnson (and yes, there are some) do not necessarily appreciate him for his acting skills, which is just as well...
★★★☆☆ Courtesy of award-winning American actor, writer and director Lena Dunham, Tiny Furniture (2010) is a film that will bewitch some – and infuriate...
★★★★☆ A former casting director for Michael Haneke, Markus Schleinzer’s austere debut Michael (2011) is a harrowing, yet absorbing examination of paedophilia which whilst...
★★★★☆ Responsible for introducing the wonderfully talented Elizabeth Olsen to the world, director Sean Durkin’s mesmerising feature debut Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) makes...
★★★☆☆ Ever since The Blair Witch Project (1999) electrified a staid horror landscape, the found footage aesthetic has become a staple of modern genre...