★★★★★ Crusading documentaries have now become a common sub-genre: from Michael Moore’s slick polemics and eco-worrier Al Gore’s persuasive An Inconvenient Truth (2006) to the animal rights appeals of both The Cove (2009) and Blackfish (2013). As such, these high […]
★★★☆☆ As Don Jon’s (2013) opening credits present a series of images highlighting the objectification of woman in the media, juxtaposed with a thudding and syrupy romantic score, it’s clear something a little different is at work in Joseph Gordon-Levitt […]
★★★☆☆ Actor turned director Jalil Lespert’s latest feature, Yves Saint Laurent (2014), sets about the ambitious task of condensing into an 106-minute film the life and work of one of fashion’s most celebrated icons. The result is a stylish melodrama, […]
★★★★☆ With The Unknown Known (2013), inimitable documentarian Errol Morris has taken the age old adage “Give em enough rope” before expanding it into a timely political critique; an oft-infuriating but deft tête-à-tête with former US Secretary of Defence Donald […]
★★★☆☆ Having paced the peripheries of the British film industry for over twenty years (going all the way back to his striking 1994 debut Dirty Diamonds), director David Mackenzie appears to be on the verge of bagging his first mainstream […]
★★★☆☆ A stoic tough guy being confronted by his own maltreated conscience is hardly a novelty in cinema. When the convention is adopted, there is always the hope that it with the intention to approach the subject from some fresh […]
★★★☆☆ “What are you looking forward to doing on your release?” Johann Rettenberger (Andreas Lust) is asked by his parole officer at the beginning of Benjamin Heisenberg’s lean Austrian crime thriller The Robber (Der Räuber, 2010). “Not running around in […]
★★★★☆ Welsh writer and director Caradog W. James’ The Machine (2013) is a terrifying vision of a dystopian world that may not be too far into the future. Vincent (Toby Stephens) is a government scientist working on various forms of […]
★★☆☆☆ Based on David Mamet’s play Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Steve Pink’s About Last Night (2014) – also a remake of the 1986 rom-com starring Rob Lowe and Demi Moore – attempts to provide a modern spin on the trials and […]
Now in its 18th year, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival runs from 18-28 March 2014 with a programme of twenty award-winning documentary and feature films screening at the Curzon Mayfair, Curzon Soho, Ritzy Brixton and the Barbican. Jehane Noujaim’s […]
★★★☆☆ Martial arts cinema never fails to surprise. Take, for instance, the visually stunning, high-kicking Vietnamese period adventure The Lady Assassin (2013). In this garish, cartoon-esque adventure – starring Kim Dzung, Tang Thanh Ha, Thanh Hang, Thai-Hoa Le, Diem My […]
★★★☆☆ “Taking photographs with a view camera is a world apart,” explains celebrated Gallic photographer and filmmaker Raymond Depardon as he clicks his shutter. It’s through this deliberate medium that he has chosen to capture a later-life nationwide trek to […]
★★★☆☆ Piggybacking on the phenomenal popularity of young adult fiction adaptations like the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises, Gary Ross’ revision of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games yielded strong praise from critics with equally impressive box office figures to match. […]
★★★☆☆ It would certainly be tempting to dismiss completely British director Ridley Scott’s drug trafficking drama The Counsellor (2013) and write a hell-for-leather kicking of the film, as many already have. Likewise, it would be relatively easy to position yourself […]
★★★★☆ Discourse surrounding Tunisian-French director Abdellatif Kechiche’s adaptation of Julie Maroh’s eponymous graphic novel Blue Is the Warmest Colour quickly shifted from festival sensation to media sensationalism. Chided for exploring lesbian sexuality through masculine subjectivity to fastidious critics questioning Kechiche’s […]
★★★★☆ Sparks fly and molten steel bubbles in Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and director Martin Wallace’s poetic homage to Sheffield’s steel industry, The Big Melt (2013). Images and clips are welded together to Cocker’s eloquent, soaring score for a spellbinding […]
★★★☆☆ Following the roaring success of Senna (2010) and Ron Howard’s asphalt drama Rush (2013), Paul Crowder’s Formula One doc 1: Life on the Limit (2013) provides a more comprehensive history of the sport and examines in particular the tension between the […]
★★☆☆☆ There are many charming discrepancies in Terry Gilliam’s creative output, but one miscalculation lingers; is it us or him who has lost the plot? Are we too wired into our own pragmatic nightmares to appreciate his trademark brand of […]
