★★☆☆☆ Based on the autobiography of the late Second World War veteran Eric Lomax, who passed away in 2012 at the age of 93, director Jonathan Teplitzky’s prim and proper The Railway Man (2013) attempts – and largely fails – to cinematically tackle the PTSD suffered by the former British Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ No single director in recent memory has forcibly alienated and beguiled their audiences in equal measure as much as Lars von Trier. He’s an unforgiving chaser of controversy. He’s notoriously callous to work with. He’s a voracious practical joker with us, the spectator, being the punchline. Yet, while his Continue Reading
★★★★☆ In an alternate history of American cinema, Samuel Fuller would stand shoulder to shoulder with John Ford and Howard Hawks. If the latter pair constitute the heart and the soul, then Fuller would be its insatiable id. He’s a director almost overcome with ideas, yet manages to channel them Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Continuing his highly praised and numerously explored focus on the intrinsic role and challenges of family life in contemporary Japanese society, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Like Father, Like Son (2013) is another tenderly observed and emotionally fraught depiction of an all too real occurrence. Taking as its subject matter the universally Continue Reading
★★★★☆ The Discovery Channel have staked their claim in the world of big budget television with the handsome and well-acted historical adventure Klondike (2014) – the channel’s first scripted production. Under the welcome supervision of executive producer Ridley Scott and veteran small-screen director Simon Cellan Jones, this is an immensely Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Elia Kazan knew that he’d made a dud with the underwhelming Hepburn/Tracy vehicle The Sea of Grass (1947), even going as far as to discouraging audiences from seeing it. But that crushing disappointment evidently resulted in a new sense of creative purpose, with the director joining forces with newsreel Continue Reading
★★★★★ Sometimes a film comes along where the viewer can do nothing but sit back and let the whole blissful business wash over them. Hobson’s Choice (1954) – director David Lean’s spirited screen adaptation of playwright Harold Brighouse’s humorous drama about Victorian social mores – is one such film. This Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Following on from the recent rerelease of his 1979 debut That Sinking Feeling, Bill Forsyth’s teen rom-com Gregory’s Girl (1981) has also undergone a similar digital upgrade to its predecessor. However, underneath the (admittedly) outstanding transfer, Gregory’s Girl remains that same delightful and hugely appealing coming-of-age tale which managed Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ The latest collection from the British Film Institute maintains their ongoing commitment to preserve Britain’s film heritage for generations to come. Accompanied by a fascinating and detailed collector’s booklet, Runaways includes three films from the Children’s Film Foundation featuring young boys who, in various ways, run away from home, Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Kirk Douglas fans have been spoiled recently with not only a theatrical rerelease of Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 war drama Paths of Glory but also this week the Masters of Cinema reissue of Billy Wilder’s newshound satire Ace in the Hole (1951), in which the Hollywood icon also takes centre stage. Continue Reading
