DVD Review: ‘Black Rock’
★★☆☆☆ Ostensibly, Black Rock (2012) appears to present a gritty thriller via a noticeably female perspective. Directed by actress Katie Aselton (from a script...
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.
★★★★☆ In Alex Garland’s Civil War, a group of journalists embark on a road trip to interview the US President amidst a second American Civil War, while exploring media’s dehumanizing relationship with violence.
★★★★☆ Having won the Jury Prize in 2013 for Like Father, Like Son and the Palme d’Or in 2018 with Shoplifters, Cannes favourite and Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda returns with Monster, a masterful work of intricate storytelling, complemented by a lovely score by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto.
★★★★★ Theodor Adorno famously wrote that poetry was not possible after Auschwitz, but is cinema? Billy Wilder certainly thought so, getting footage from the camps as evidence as much as anything else. Steven Spielberg, Claude Lanzmann, Alain Resnais and Roberto Benigni have all with differing degrees of success tried their hands.
★★☆☆☆ Ostensibly, Black Rock (2012) appears to present a gritty thriller via a noticeably female perspective. Directed by actress Katie Aselton (from a script...
★★★★☆ Having experienced success in front of the camera, Canadian actress Sarah Polley has now made a successful transition to a role behind it....
★★★★★ From the pen of writer, actor and comedian Christopher Guest comes HBO’s Family Tree, a mockumentary series that centre on one man’s mission...
★★☆☆☆ An Irishman playing an Hungarian, an Englishman playing an American and a Swede playing a Frenchmen all stroll onto a film set. They...
★★★☆☆ Almost twenty years after Interview with the Vampire (1994), Neil Jordan returns to horror with an uneven but literate canter through a rich...
★★★☆☆ Directed by Goro Miyazaki, son of Studio Ghibli figurehead Hayao Miyazaki, From Up on Poppy Hill (2011) is a delightful coming-of-age drama, made...
★★☆☆☆ Viggo Mortensen rises to the challenge of playing twins in Argentinian director Ana Piterberg’s debut feature Everybody Has a Plan (2012) – even...