DVD Review: ‘Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy’
★☆☆☆☆ Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy (2011) is an adaptation of the acclaimed Scottish writer’s novel The Undefeated, the third in a trilogy. Perhaps director Rob...
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.
★☆☆☆☆ Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy (2011) is an adaptation of the acclaimed Scottish writer’s novel The Undefeated, the third in a trilogy. Perhaps director Rob...
★★★★★ During the 1970s, no Christmas television was complete without the BBC’s famous series A Ghost Story for Christmas. All twelve tales of uncanny...
★★★★☆ “A cross between paradise and paradise” is how President Mohamed Nasheed describes his country which sits precariously at the mercy of the Indian...
★★☆☆☆ Based on the Gothic novel by Matthew G. Lewis, German director Dominik Moll’s fourth feature The Monk (2011) delves deep into the world...
★★★☆☆ Romanian director Florin Serban’s If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle (2010), based on the play of the same name by Andreea Valean,...
★★★★☆ Following a surprise appearance at last year’s BFI London Film Festival and a warm (if slightly muted) reception upon its UK cinematic release,...