Film reviews and more
★★★★★ Over four years in the making and painstakingly crafted by a team of three thousand creatives, the grandeur and scale of Oscar-winning director Ang Lee’s Life of Pi (2012) – his adaptation of Yann Martel’s bestselling novel – isn’t […]
★★★★☆ While the Nordic Noir wave has seen a recent explosion in popularity, it is worth remembering that the genre has been successful for several decades now. From Insomnia (1997), starring Stellan Skarsgård as a Swedish cop with a sleeping […]
★★★☆☆ The Expendables are back, and this time their ultra-macho efforts may be at least partially worthwhile. Countless fans of eighties action cinema were left with a bitter dissatisfaction at the flabby, dull and far too serious nature of Sylvester […]
Intel and the world-renowned W Hotel chain joined forces with VICE this month for short film competition Four Stories, that aimed to seek out the world’s next bright young things in film. From over 1000 submissions from aspiring filmmakers around […]
★★★☆☆ Another quality release courtesy of Arrow Films’ Nordic Noir stable, Kjell Sundvall’s 2011 film False Trail (a direct sequel to his 1996 outing Jägarna, aka The Hunters), is a suitably dark, snaking tale of familial secrets and lies set […]
★★☆☆☆ An ever so cynical, pre-award season release riffing on potential Academy Award nominee Zero Dark Thirty (2012), John Stockwell’s Codename: Operation Geronimo – from the producer of 2010’s The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar winner – suffers from both an underwhelming, TV-friendly cast and some similarly below average direction.
★★★☆☆ American director Robert Aldrich’s 1962 psychological drama What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? celebrates its 50th anniversary in style this week with an impressive digital restoration, courtesy of Park Circus, and follows the melodramatic tale of two rival sisters […]
★★☆☆☆ In Dead Europe (2012), Australian photographer Isaac (Ewen Leslie) heads to Greece (his family’s home nation) for the first time, presenting an exhibition of his work while at the same time visiting his errant brother Nikolai (Marton Csokas). His […]
★★★☆☆ A modest yet elegantly constructed period drama, Babette’s Feast is a curiously middlebrow choice for a BFI rerelease. Winner of the 1987 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, this is just about as genteel as Oscar recipients come. Adapted […]
★★★★☆ For an artist who has always doggedly avoided any nostalgia, 2012 has been an unusually reflective year for Neil Young. He published his surprisingly serene autobiography and released two records, one of which was made up of covers of […]
★★★★☆ Capping off a standout year for appealing, thought-provoking documentaries, Jeff Orlowski’s Sundance Film Festival hit Chasing Ice (2012) is arguably the pick of the bunch – visually at least. Following the pioneering exploits of photographer turned climate change activist […]
★★★☆☆ Kiwi filmmaker Peter Jackson effectively revolutionised fantasy cinema with his awe-inspiring The Lord of the Rings series. Eleven years later, Jackson returns to Middle Earth with an equally groundbreaking – though ultimately disappointing – liberal adaptation of J. R. R. […]