DVD Review: ‘Welcome to New York’
★★★★☆ Gérard Depardieu is barnstorming as the outrageous subject of Abel Ferrara’s lurid Welcome to New York (2014), inspired by the scandal that ended...
★★☆☆☆ “An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,” Percy Shelley once wrote in his sonnet England in 1819. He was firing his barbs at King George III but the words could just as well be used for any number of English monarchs including Henry VIII.
★★★★★ Turkish master director Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns to the Cannes Croisette with About Dry Grasses, a wonderful wintry meditation on male fragility and the way we often make our own hells and then deceive ourselves that we’re trapped.
★★★★☆ From sub-Saharan Africa to Afghanistan, Syria to Iraq and Iran, the climate crisis, drought, war, and oppression has created a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. It is treated as an ethical conundrum, but it isn’t. Either we wish to save those who are in danger of dying, or all our talk of human rights is just so much hot air. This is the core concern of Green Border.
★★★★☆ With Luca Guadagnino’s terrific Challengers, the acclaimed director of Call Me By Your Name brings us the sub-genre we never knew we needed: the erotic tennis thriller.
★★☆☆☆ Directors Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s “Abigail” mashes up crime caper and monster movie, but fails to deliver fear or humor. Spoilery trailers and unoriginal characters overshadow promising elements, resulting in a dull, lifeless experience lacking creativity and wit.
★★☆☆☆ Maïwenn’s French period drama Jeanne du Barry is the perfect opening salvo for the 76th Cannes Film Festival. It is as glitzy and gaudy as the festival itself, with its vacuous politics drowned out by the thunderous sound of it slapping its own back.
★★★★☆ Gérard Depardieu is barnstorming as the outrageous subject of Abel Ferrara’s lurid Welcome to New York (2014), inspired by the scandal that ended...
★★★★☆ After the critically adored The Kid with a Bike (2011) saw celebrated Belgian filmmakers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne take a softer approach to...
★★★★☆ Almost forty years after its first release, Shivers (1975) is still difficult to watch. Even for a director as renowned for his bizarre...
★★★☆☆ In the House of Mouse’s third attempt at reinventing a classic fairytale as a live action adventure, director Robert Stromberg brings us a...
★★★☆☆ After dabbling satisfyingly with horror in his three features so far, director Jim Mickle adopts a decidedly different pace with Cold in July...
★★☆☆☆ Adapted from James Franco’s novel of the same name – a reflection of the hometown ennui he managed to transcend, Palo Alto (2013)...
★★★★☆ It’s easy to forget that before the commercialisation of youth culture, movements emerged which offered a grand escapism and an exciting alternative to...
★★☆☆☆ Agnès B is a created idea from the imagination of Agnès Andrée Marguerite Troublé. Known to the world as a fashion designer she...