★★★★★ Arriving as the British capital revels in the wake of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, Julien Temple’s London: The Modern Babylon is perhaps the celebrated filmmaker’s magnum opus, a documentary that laboriously studies, contextualises and essays the boundless national dexterity of London and its stance as a city of vibrant Continue Reading
★★★★☆ American indie director Lynn Shelton’s long-awaited follow-up to the excellent Humpday (2009) sees her once again calling upon the improvisational acting style of mumblecore veteran Mark Duplass in one of the lead roles. Although Your Sister’s Sister (2011) is slightly more generic than the director’s previous output, the parade Continue Reading
★☆☆☆☆ Written, produced and starring Noel Clarke, Johannes Roberts’ Storage 24 (2012) is set against the backdrop of a military cargo crash in London. When its highly classified contents are let loose upon the capital, the sky becomes awash with thick black smog and mild panic spreads across the city. Continue Reading
★★★★☆ “If you can get the King to visit your bed chamber on the first evening, you’ll be perceived as a great success.” This is the advice handed down to Caroline Mathilde (Alicia Vikander) by her mother before she embarks on her journey from England to marry the then Danish Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Completing the BFI’s accumulative DVD collection of ghost story adaptations, which over the years became a staple of the BBC’s Christmas and New Year programming, come two contemporary made chillers from renowned British writer M. R. James. Both A View From A Hill (2005), directed by Luke Watson and Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Written by Sleeping Beauty (2011) director Julia Leigh and starring Willem Dafoe, Daniel Nettheim’s The Hunter (2011) is a peculiar beast of a film; part introspective study on the human condition, part environmental thriller, culminating in a peculiar balancing act between its inherent mainstream sensibilities and meditative arthouse procedural. Continue Reading