★★☆☆☆ Very Good Girls (2014) has all the trappings of an indie coming-of-age story: a hip soundtrack commandeered by musician Jenny Lewis; fresh-faced and innocent actresses; dreamy cinematography; just a dash of drama to appropriately weight the plot. This is all well and good but in a sea […]
★★★★☆ Stanley Donen could see the writing on the wall. The counter-culture was dawning and it was only a matter of time before the spirit of the Beats and the sexual force of Elvis reached the American cinema. The country was changing around him and he offered an […]
★★★★☆ If mainstream entertainment like HBO’s Girls and Frances Ha (2013) have done anything, they‘ve elevated the platforms for women in the entertainment industry to share their views and opinions and explore issues and debates within modern feminine society. Following suit is Gillian Robespierre’s debut feature Obvious Child […]
★★★★★ During the making of Metropolis (1927) Germany was caught in a tundra of political restructure and cinematic prosperity. Beneath the cindered waste cast aside by the First World War was a fatherland set for reform by the Weimar Republic and a film industry set to take the […]
★★★☆☆ In the wake of terrorism, governments have been left to wonder how they missed crucial signs, what preventative measures need to be taken and what can effectively stamp out the destructive actions of a few. A Most Wanted Man (2014) is set in a post-9/11 Hamburg, Germany: […]
★★★☆☆ Ernst Grossner’s war drama, 1915: The Battle for the Alps (released as The Silent Mountain in 2014), is set in the Dolomite Mountains during World War One. A classy European cast includes William Moseley, of The Chronicles of Narnia fame. The dramatic backdrop is the fight between […]
