DVD Review: ’12 Years a Slave’
Advertisements ★★★★★ When is an ‘issue movie’ not an ‘issue movie’? In the case of Steve McQueen’s vital 12 Years a Slave (2013), when...
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.
★★★★☆ In Alex Garland’s Civil War, a group of journalists embark on a road trip to interview the US President amidst a second American Civil War, while exploring media’s dehumanizing relationship with violence.
★★★★☆ Having won the Jury Prize in 2013 for Like Father, Like Son and the Palme d’Or in 2018 with Shoplifters, Cannes favourite and Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda returns with Monster, a masterful work of intricate storytelling, complemented by a lovely score by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto.
★★★★★ Theodor Adorno famously wrote that poetry was not possible after Auschwitz, but is cinema? Billy Wilder certainly thought so, getting footage from the camps as evidence as much as anything else. Steven Spielberg, Claude Lanzmann, Alain Resnais and Roberto Benigni have all with differing degrees of success tried their hands.
Advertisements ★★★★★ When is an ‘issue movie’ not an ‘issue movie’? In the case of Steve McQueen’s vital 12 Years a Slave (2013), when...
Advertisements ★★★★☆ The Wind Rises (2013) is the latest and, so it would seem, last feature from veteran Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki. Following...
Advertisements ★★★☆☆ A charming slice of magical realism, Janez Burger’s Silent Sonata (2010) comes cartwheeling into UK cinemas this week having first screened at...
Advertisements ★★★☆☆ Dublin-born director Lenny Abrahamson teams up with Guardian journalist Jon Ronson for offbeat, oddball comedy Frank (2013), inspired by the life and...
Advertisements ★★☆☆☆ One of the of the most intensely scrutinised films to emerge out of Hollywood for some time, The Canyons (2013) finally arrives...
Advertisements ★★★☆☆ It’s difficult not to think of Michael Haneke’s Hidden (2005) in the opening stages of Philippe Claudel’s third film, Before the Winter...
Advertisements ★★★★☆ Seth Rogen and Nicholas Stoller are responsible for some of the funniest comedies of the noughties, from 2007’s Superbad to The Five-Year...
Advertisements ★★★★☆ American Interior (2014), the tremendous new collaboration between Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys and director Dylan Goch, is a chronicle of...