November 2012
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DVD Review: ‘King of Devil’s Island’
★★★★☆ Set in the early 20th century on the Norwegian island of Bastoy, a penal colony for young offenders, Marius Holst’s hugely absorbing King of Devil’s Island (2010) explores themes such as authority, responsibility and friendship. After aggressive, foolhardy inmate (Benjamin Helstad) arrives on the island, disgruntlement begins to brew amongst the child prisoner inhabitants.…
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DVD Review: ‘Killer Joe’
★★★★☆ Hitting roughly the same notes as Andrew Dominik’s recession resonant mobster tale Killing Them Softly (2012), William Friedkin’s Killer Joe (2011) is arguably the more depraved and nihilistic beast, a grease-smeared Texan crime thriller where immorality reigns supreme and beloved family members are expendable commodities. State native Matthew McConaughey continues his recent hot streak…
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DVD Review: ‘Men in Black 3’
★★☆☆☆ Fifteen years after the first instalment and following an extensive and not to mention turbulent development period that spanned numerous years, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones finally find themselves donning their black attire once more as Agents J and K for Men in Black 3 (2012). The film, which finds director Barry Sonnenfeld…
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Russian Film Festival 2012: Programme preview
Today sees the opening night celebrations for the 6th incarnation of the annual Russian Film Festival. Held across numerous highly regarded London cinemas (including the Apollo Cinema at Piccadilly and The Aubin in Shoreditch), this year sees the festival widen its scope beyond the capital, for the first time, holding screenings in both Cambridge and…
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Film Review: ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’
★★★★☆ The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s reputation certainly precedes it. This October, a new cinematic rerelease of Richard O’Brien’s 1975 cult classic will see throngs of fans fastening their suspender belts and donning shiny, gold speedos as they pay tribute to one of the most iconic musicals of all time. A homage to the B-movie…
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Film Review: ‘Excision’
★★★☆☆ A disturbed and deeply delusional suburban horror, Richard Bates Jr.’s directorial debut Excision (2012) is a fine example of genre filmmaking that’s positively brooding with tongue-in-cheek satire and vulgar, macabre imagery. Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord, in a surprisingly ‘dressed down’ performance) is a troubled young girl with a morbid fascination with surgical procedures and medicine. Life…
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Film Review: ‘Call Me Kuchu’
★★★★☆ A heartfelt and profoundly affecting exposé into the daily struggle faced by Uganda’s severely persecuted LGBT community, Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall’s Call Me Kuchu (2012) stands head and shoulders above a great deal of this year’s more populist, knowingly ‘cinematic’ documentaries. Preferring to let its thoughtful and eloquent subjects do the talking…
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Film Review: ‘We Are the Night’
★★☆☆☆ Originally written in the late 1990s, Dennis Gansel’s vampire film We Are the Night (2010) – starring German arthouse star Nina Hoss – spent almost a decade in development hell before the success of the Twilight franchise reopened the doors for it. With bloodsucking very much back in vogue, especially at this time of…
