Film reviews and more
★★☆☆☆ “Without it, life means nothing” according to a quote that fills the screen in the opening moments of British director Shan Khan’s twisting London-set thriller, Honour (2014). Attempting to straddle the potentially conflicting identities of cultural expose and nerve-shredding […]
★★★★☆ Having carved out a career with music documentaries like 2008’s We Dreamed America, director Alex Walker dips his toes into waters new with debut feature Fossil (2014), a psychological thriller that follows a couple on holiday in the south […]
★★☆☆☆ Quentin Tarantino last year lauded Big Bad Wolves (2013), the second feature from Israeli filmmakers Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado (following on from their well-received 2010 debut, Rabies), as his favourite film of 2013 and it’s easy to see […]
★★★★☆ A nihilistic examination of how patriarchy is fundamental to social oppression through the interrogation of defined gender roles, Claire Denis’ Bastards (2013) is a post-modern film noir that feels like observing the world through two black eyes. Paris has […]
★★★★☆ In the summer of 2004, a pair of American comedies arrived at the box office within just two weeks of each other. The first was Dodgeball, which starred the Saturday Night Live giants of the day and quickly became […]
★★★★★ Drifting away from his dialogue-heavy and tightly-wound financial crisis drama debut Margin Call (2011), J.C. Chandor’s sophomore directorial feature All Is Lost (2013) is a stripped down and incredibly gripping story of one man’s struggle for survival after his […]
★★★★☆ When Mark Duplass and Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss first sit and discuss their relationship in a couples therapy session, audiences will feel they have a fair idea of where The One I Love (2014) is headed. A romantic […]
★★★★☆ Recent lo-fi Brooklynite comedies such as Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha (2013) and Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture (2010) feel positively old-hat compared with Gillian Robespierre’s bracing Obvious Child (2014), which is funnier and more urgent than both. Robespierre and her […]
★★★☆☆ To describe Tim Sutton’s Memphis (2013) – screening this week at the Sundance London film and music festival – as ‘meditative’ would be something of an understatement. With his 2012 debut, Pavilion, the director was likened to a cross […]
★★★☆☆ Moral crises abound in Sara Colangelo’s brooding debut feature, Little Accidents (2014). A small mining community in the Appalachian Mountains is devastated by the deaths of ten of its workers when a mine collapses. After a few months, the […]
★★★★☆ Following on from 2012’s Kid-Thing, a feverish tale about a destructive young girl operating freely beyond all tangible moral boundaries, the Zellner brothers returns with Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014). Perfectly pitched between lighthearted whimsy and all-out absurdity, the […]
★★☆☆☆ In 1990, Sydney Freeland’s home of Gallup, New Mexico was dubbed Drunktown, USA by a report on ABC’s 20/20 news programme. Decades later, Freeland has reclaimed the undesirable moniker for the name of her feature debut set in her […]