Film reviews and more
★★★☆☆ The second crime thriller to come from director Michael Noer (whose previous film, 2010’s R: Hit First, Hit Hardest, was a collaboration between himself and fellow Dane Tobias Lindholm), Northwest (2013) does little that’s new but still does enough […]
★★★★☆ Let it be howled from the mountain tops that with his extraordinary Noah (2014), director Darren Aronofsky has crafted a bold, phantasmagorical interpretation of the Old Testament tale as we’ve never seen it before. In it, mankind – led […]
★★★★★ French critic and auteur François Truffaut’s tone and style have been both successfully and unsuccessfully mined by numerous directors over the years, including the likes of Wes Anderson, Richard Ayoade and Shane Meadows. Never as knowingly hip and revolutionary […]
★★★☆☆ Fresh off the back of last year’s Drinking Buddies (2013), mumblecore forefather Joe Swanberg returns with Happy Christmas (2014), another modestly budgeted drama which he customarily directs, writes, produces and stars in himself. Where Drinking Buddies flirted somewhat with […]
★★★☆☆ E J-Yong’s Behind the Camera (2013) is a doc-style film that offers an intriguing question; can an absent filmmaker direct a cast and crew over the internet via social media? The result is whimsical, amusing and more than a […]
★★★★☆ “Rape, murder. It’s just a shot away.” Merry Clayton’s vocal projection pierce through at Gimme Shelter’s most unsettling moment. Jagger presses on with playing the sex-crazed Pierrot as Clayton literally screams through a microphone. The story of Clayton’s involvement […]
★★★★☆ Marc Silver’s award-winning documentary Who is Dayani Cristal? (2013), co-produced by and starring Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, explores the identity and tragic fate of one economic migrant after he attempts to forge a life for himself in the […]
★★★★★ Simplicity is often the conduit to a perverse complexity that grows more enigmatic the longer the gaze of the enchanted is maintained. Even in its present state of butchered grandeur, The Lady from Shanghai (1947) – back in UK […]
★★★★☆ From the same director who brought us such eclectic offerings as George Washington (2000) and stoner comedy Pineapple Express (2008), David Gordon Green’s rural noir Joe (2013) – based on Larry Brown’s grit-lit novel – stars Nicolas Cage as […]
★★★☆☆ With the likes of Disney Pixar and DreamWorks Animation already riding high on a wave of critical acclaim, box office success and Academy Awards, European animation houses are starting to emerge with increasingly strong output. The House of Magic […]
★★★☆☆ There’s a legend on the South American Galapagos Islands that the famous tortoises that inhabit their shores have the power to stare into the souls of men. These enormous reptiles are said to judge each new arrival on their […]
★★☆☆☆ Earth to Echo (2014), director Dave Green’s feature debut, admirably attempts to recreate the classic family adventure films of the eighties, but instead delivers an uneven mishap that comes up short on heart, soul and – in particular – […]