Film Review: ‘Lovelace’
★★☆☆☆ In 1972, Gerard Damiano’s cult porno Deep Throat launched the short-lived but infamous career of Linda Lovelace, as well as pushing ‘adult entertainment’...
★★☆☆☆ “An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,” Percy Shelley once wrote in his sonnet England in 1819. He was firing his barbs at King George III but the words could just as well be used for any number of English monarchs including Henry VIII.
★★★★★ Turkish master director Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns to the Cannes Croisette with About Dry Grasses, a wonderful wintry meditation on male fragility and the way we often make our own hells and then deceive ourselves that we’re trapped.
★★★★☆ From sub-Saharan Africa to Afghanistan, Syria to Iraq and Iran, the climate crisis, drought, war, and oppression has created a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. It is treated as an ethical conundrum, but it isn’t. Either we wish to save those who are in danger of dying, or all our talk of human rights is just so much hot air. This is the core concern of Green Border.
★★★★☆ With Luca Guadagnino’s terrific Challengers, the acclaimed director of Call Me By Your Name brings us the sub-genre we never knew we needed: the erotic tennis thriller.
★★☆☆☆ Directors Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s “Abigail” mashes up crime caper and monster movie, but fails to deliver fear or humor. Spoilery trailers and unoriginal characters overshadow promising elements, resulting in a dull, lifeless experience lacking creativity and wit.
★★☆☆☆ Maïwenn’s French period drama Jeanne du Barry is the perfect opening salvo for the 76th Cannes Film Festival. It is as glitzy and gaudy as the festival itself, with its vacuous politics drowned out by the thunderous sound of it slapping its own back.
★★☆☆☆ In 1972, Gerard Damiano’s cult porno Deep Throat launched the short-lived but infamous career of Linda Lovelace, as well as pushing ‘adult entertainment’...
★★☆☆☆ Adapted from a series of popular young adult novels, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013) is everything you’d expect from a mythology...
★★★★☆ Some filmmakers take their time to get into their directorial stride, ironing out their craft over a series of offerings. For South African...
★★★★☆ Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s What Maisie Knew (2012) is a contemporary adaptation of the classic Henry James novel. The duo have chosen...
Each year, London’s Somerset House transforms its majestic 18th century courtyard into the city’s most esteemed outdoor cinema. An undisputed highlight of the summer...
★★★★★ Long considered cinema’s oldest surviving feature-length animation, Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) is finally released this week on a widely...
★★★☆☆ Opinions on what makes a good horror film usually fall into two distinct camps. On the one hand you have those which unsettle...
★★★☆☆ The BFI’s Experiment Under London is a good example of what the institute does best – preserving intrinsic parts of our country’s cultural and...