★★★☆☆ On the surface, revered American filmmaker John Cassavetes’ The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is a meandering, almost impenetrable tale of sweaty strip joints and sleazy gangsters. Culled of 25 minutes of footage after the original 1976 cut bombed at the box office, the leaner 1978 re-edit is undoubtedly Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ Elliot Silverstein’s 1977 cult horror The Car, which stars James Brolin, Kathleen Lloyd, John Marley and Ronny Cox, is one of those obscure films which many people claim to have heard of, but few have ever seen. Something with four wheels, a high-powered engine and the soul of the Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ An exercise in atmosphere and tension is given an interesting twist in Static (2012), a solid little shocker which is certainly a cut above the usual uninspired horror titles which flood the budget DVD sales market on a weekly basis. Bereft over the death of their young child, famed Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Katarzyna Klimkiewicz’s assured debut feature Flying Blind (2012), starring Helen McCrory, Najib Oudghiri and Kenneth Cranham, is a political thriller with a sting in its tail. Frankie (McCrory), an attractive middle-aged woman, is a successful aerospace engineer designing drones for the British military. She also lectures at Bristol University Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ It’s been mere weeks since the 2013 edition of the Glastonbury Festival ended – the cows are not yet back in the hallowed fields of Worthy Farm – but festival fans still shaking off withdrawal symptoms could do worse than Glastonbury: The Movie in Flashback (2012), an affectionate rockumentary Continue Reading
