July 2014
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Film Review: ‘Bastards’
★★★☆☆ Every year, thousands of newborns are abandoned in Morocco alone. Many of these instances occur as a result of the stigma attached to illegitimate children in Muslim countries – the product, as they are, of illegal sex out of wedlock. There is a subsequent status of social pariah thrust upon the mothers, with unyielding…
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DVD Review: ‘The Sacrament’
★★★★☆ Ti West is undoubtedly one of the most exciting directors of the American horror new wave. He works intuitively, re-thinking the rules of horror movies within established generic boundaries. While he may be known for his signature slow-burns, the label is actually emblematic of his broader working methods; he’s a thoughtful, passionate artist whose…
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Blu-ray Review: ‘Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins’
★★☆☆☆ For every Hollywood franchise to complete the victory lap, there are those unfortunate ventures which fall at the first hurdle. The latter was definitely the case with 1985’s Remo Williams: The Adventure Begin, which is brought back to life in this peerless transfer from Arrow Video. From the film’s subtitle alone, it’s clear there…
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DVD Review: ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’
★★★★☆ Moonrise Kingdom (2013) was the final nail in the coffin for Wes Anderson’s detractors, with many calling for a moratorium on the director’s wilfully idiosyncratic sensibilities. Whilst The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) is unlikely to win over any of his critics, the manner in which the American auteur embroiders his distinctive style with an…
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DVD Review: ‘The Book Thief’
★★☆☆☆ Following the global success of Julian Fellowes’ hit British television series, Downton Abbey director Brian Percival now casts his eye over Nazi Germany with an adaptation of Markus Zusak’s critically-lauded novel The Book Thief (2013). The film opens to a plummy Roger Allam voiceover as Death, informing us that the Grim Reaper has found himself…
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Film Review: ‘The Year and the Vineyard’
★★★☆☆ With his 2011 debut, The Soul of Flies, director Jonathan Cenzual Burley crafted a whimsically enjoyable but flawed odyssey through rural Spain. For his follow-up, The Year and the Vineyard (2013), he’s ploughing rather similar soil with another dose of bucolic magical realism, inflected with gentle humour and endearing if inexpert performances. What is…
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Film Review: ‘Return to Homs’
★★★★☆ Immediacy is now as important as content for a certain type of documentary. This statehood has been pushed into circumstance by the availability of visual apparatus in everyone’s pocket and professional equipment getting smaller, cheaper and better. Now, your lived-in nightmare reality can be brought to the attention of the world via a couple…
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Film Review: ‘The Hundred-Year-Old Man’
★★★☆☆ It was perhaps inevitable that Swedish author Jonas Jonasson’s popular 2009 novel, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, would make it to the big screen. A tale which straddles multiple decades and features a host of colourful supporting characters, it’s a book which almost seemed primed for cinematic treatment upon…
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Film Review: ‘Goddess’
★★☆☆☆ When done right, nothing gets people out of their seats and dancing down the aisles (or in their living rooms) than a well-executed sing-a-long. In recent years, thanks to the success of Mamma Mia!, the musical has had something of a renaissance. Mark Lamprell’s Goddess (2013), an Australian-produced effort based on the stage show…
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DVD Review: ‘The Rocket’
★★★☆☆ During the making of his 2007 film, Bomb Harvest, director Kim Mordaunt was inspired by the experience of young people in Laos who make their living extracting for sale, the metal and explosives from bombs dropped during the ‘secret war’ in the 1960s-70s. That such a huge risk was taken by children just to…