Film reviews and more
★★☆☆☆ Whilst sadly stale in its overall delivery, there are still some delights to be found in Allen Hughes’ fusion of political thriller with noir pot-boiler, Broken City (2013), which stars Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The New […]
★★★★☆ From the man who co-directed the first two entries in the [Rec] horror franchise, Spanish filmmaker Jaume Balagueró now tries his hand at something a little less frightening – yet equally as disturbing – as we enter the deranged world of […]
★★★☆☆ Thai director Aditya Assarat’s debut film, Wonderful Town (2007), saw a quiet romance set amidst a community mourning in the wake of the 2004 tsunami. Whilst his sophomore feature does shift away from it slightly, Hi-So (2010) – and […]
★★★☆☆ In the midst of a global economic downturn, with millions out of work and struggling to make ends meet, Nicholas Jarecki’s Arbitrage (2012) poses a challenging premise by asking its audience just how much they care for the self-inflicted […]
★★★☆☆ Veteran filmmaker Barry Levinson makes his best movies at home in Baltimore. His memoirs, Diner, Tin Men, Avalon and Liberty Heights – buoyant with wistful charm and unpretentious fondness – have a personal acuity his non-Baltimore films have suffered […]
★★★★☆ Whilst all eyes will soon be glued to Spike Lee’s 2013 US remake of Park Chan-wook’s infamous revenge thriller Old Boy (2003), with Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen and Samuel L. Jackson set to star, the controversial South Korean director […]
★☆☆☆☆ American author Nicholas Sparks has been watching his novels re-purposed for the big screen for over a decade now. The Notebook (2004) is perhaps the most widely adored example, though it hardly garnered universal acclaim; still, it did good […]
★★☆☆☆ After Norwegian Nazi zombie flick Dead Snow (2009) was devoured by horror fans, the good people at Paramount Pictures decided to give writer-director Tommy Wirkola $50 million to make Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 3D (2013); an ill-conceived and […]
★★★★☆ Winner of the Golden Bear prize at last year’s Berlinale, the Taviani brothers’ Caesar Must Die (Cesare deve morire, 2012) is a humanist quasi-documentary about a group of Italian maximum security prisoners performing William Shakespeare’s illustrious tragedy, Julius Caesar. […]
★★★★☆ A fitting tribute to the late director Kaneto Shindō, who sadly passed away in May of last year at the age of 100, this week’s Masters of Cinema series’ Blu-ray rerelease of 1964 Japanese drama Onibaba (The Demoness) is […]
★★★★☆ A moving and sobering tale of the fight against prejudice and the quest for acceptance in the face of adversity, Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall’s doc Call Me Kuchu (2012) is almost structured like a fiction feature, with a […]
★★★☆☆ Based on Craig Davidson’s short story collection of the same name, Jacques Audiard’s Rust and Bone (De rouille et d’os, 2012) is a tender, yet visceral piece about the nature of being human. Starring Marion Cotillard as young amputee […]