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Daily Archive: May 22, 2013

Cannes 2013: ‘Borgman’ review

★★★★☆ One of numerous films to make its way to London from the Cannes, Alex van Warmerdam’s Borgman (2013) is the darkest of dark horses: an obsidian black comedy with a surreal and genuinely vicious ‘eat the rich’ ethic that...

Cannes 2013: ‘As I Lay Dying’ review

★★☆☆☆ Following on from Baz Luhrmann’s tipsy take on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age classic The Great Gatsby, actor/director James Franco offers Cannes the second major literary adaptation from a canonical American author. Adapted faithfully by Franco himself from William...

Cannes 2013: ‘All Is Lost’ review

★★★★★ American director J.C. Chandor first made a name for himself with 2011 talkathon Margin Call, which strove to present the 07-08 financial crisis to us as if we were, “a small child, or a golden retriever”. His follow-up film,...

Cannes 2013: ‘Only God Forgives’ review

★★★☆☆ Following the success of Un Certain Regard favourite Drive back in 2011, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn returns to the Croisette with Only God Forgives (2013), a stylish if ultimately shallow essay in extremism. Julian (Ryan Gosling) is a...

Film Review: ‘Something in the Air’

★★☆☆☆ “Vive la révolution!” No single culture betters leftist subculture than the aged liberals of France. Many would refer to it all as misguided historic romanticism. But there are those like Olivier Assayas where their movies echo an intrinsic disconnection...

Film Review: ‘Epic 3D’

★★☆☆☆ Little do the oversized world of galumphing humans realise that living in our forests are legions of tiny ‘Leafmen’, in armour, protecting the natural world from the evils of decay. Under the benevolent rule of a magical queen, this...

Cannes 2013: ‘Grigris’ review

★★★☆☆ Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s latest feature, Cannes contender Grigris (2013), recounts a tale of hope against despair in the director’s native African country of Chad. It tells the story of the titular Grigris (played by Souleymane Deme), a young man whose ambition...