★★★☆☆ When Howard Carter discovered King Tutankhamen’s tomb back in 1922, a sensation swept the entire European continent, resulting in a great deal of public fascination towards all things Ancient Egyptian. It would be tempting to compare this discovery to the restoration of Ernst Lubitsch’s The Loves of Pharaoh (thought Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Edinburgh’s loss, it appears, is London’s gain with the festival ensnaring Scott Graham’s superb Shell (2012), a beautifully rendered, incredibly haunting example of gritty British cinema concocted by a refreshing fusion of intelligence and artistic refinement. Set within the sparse, yet desolately beautiful countryside of the Scottish Highlands, Shell Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ I, Anna (2012) director Barnaby Southcombe, son of actress Charlotte Rampling (who takes the lead role as a femme fatale in this, his feature debut), attempts to adapt Elsa Lewin’s novel of the same name in what is a disappointing thriller set in London’s Barbican. After a man is Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ From American director Ira Sachs (best known for previous efforts Married Life and Forty Shades of Blue) comes Keep the Lights On (2012), a sensitive, meandering drama set amongst the bohemian cafés and art galleries of New York City. Brought together through a hedonistic cocktail of sex and drugs, Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Well-known in her native Germany, Martina Gedeck is perhaps best recalled for her role in Oscar-winning Stasi drama The Lives of Others (2006). However, with a sprinkling of luck this may soon change, as recent New Wave Films acquisition The Wall (Die Wand, 2012) gears up for a 2013 Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Whilst the fruits of last year’s Arab Spring are currently being sampled in a number of Middle Eastern former-dictatorships, Israel and Palestine remain locked in an unedifying stand-off over ownership of the contentious Gaza Strip. Self-proclaimed Palestinian ‘peasant’ – and now filmmaker – Emad Burnat wades lens first into Continue Reading
★★★★☆ In recent years, Tim Burton’s cinematic output has been more than a little disappointing. Revisiting his own source material with 2012 stop-motion animation Frankenweenie 3D (based on a 1984 short he made whilst working for Disney), he manages a partial return to form with a feature that possesses the Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Tsui Hark’s Flying Swords of Dragon Gate 3D (2011) is proof once more, that Hark is a true revisionist of Hong Kong genre cinema. Following closely from his last and equally impressive film Detective Dee (2010), Hark breathes much needed new life into the modern Wuxia film, which has Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ After being well-received in the US earlier this year, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (2012) finally gets its UK release this week. Not for nothing has the animated franchise grossed over a billion dollars, and the latest energetic instalment deserves to be just as successful as its predecessors. Alex Continue Reading
★★★★★ A runaway hit on the 2012 festival circuit (with acclaim coming at both Sundance and Cannes), Benh Zeitlin’s vibrant and imaginative eco-fantasy Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) is not only one of the most impressive directorial debuts seen in the last 12 months, but also a strong contender Continue Reading