LFF 2013: ‘Gore Vidal: United States of Amnesia’ review
★★★☆☆ If you want to read about how former US president John F. Kennedy liked to have sex in the bath, then Palimpsest, the...
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.
★★★☆☆ If you want to read about how former US president John F. Kennedy liked to have sex in the bath, then Palimpsest, the...
★★★☆☆ The Queen director Stephen Frears’ latest offering Philomena (2013), one of a plethora of Oscar hopefuls at this year’s BFI London Film Festival,...
★★★★☆ Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard star in Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves (2013), an eco-terrorism thriller that, whilst more accessible than her...
★☆☆☆☆ Italian director Gianni Amelio returns to the fray with the hugely disappointing L’intrepido (A Lonely Hero, 2013), a hopelessly drab character study and...
★★★☆☆ British comic actor Richard Ayoade grabbed the attention of the UK industry back in 2010 with feature debut Submarine, a sharp, cineliterate adaptation...
★★★☆☆ “He who robs the graves of Egypt…dies.” It’s sage advice oft proffered to enthusiastic archaeologists and rarely taken heed of. Unsurprisingly, it proves...
★★☆☆☆ Lifeforce (1985), director Tobe Hooper’s foray into space-based terror, is very much a product of its time. Starring Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Mathilda...
★★★★☆ In the interview included on Third Window’s release of See You Tomorrow, Everyone (2013) director Yoshihiro Nakamura acknowledges how his film makes certain...