Film reviews and more
★★★★☆ Having already made his first and comparatively more sombre full feature in the form of 2009’s Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, American filmmaker Damien Chazelle returns with Whiplash (2014). A bruising and bracingly melodious cat and mouse story, it continues the director’s fascination with the way music simultaneously inspires and affects everyday life. With what has […]
★★★☆☆ Thomas Hardy’s tale of pastoral passions in the heart of South-west England, adapted carefully but beautifully by director John Schlesinger, Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) stands the tests of time. Does it still manage to captivate? Does it draw on its thematic through-lines and manage to feel relevant to current audiences? Do the performances still feel fresh, […]
★★★★☆ The best science fiction serves as a barometer of the times, a tool with which to gauge the concerns of our age. In Ex Machina (2015), the superb directorial debut of genre polymath Alex Garland, our contemporary technological fear is internalised then cast into the future’s void. The consequences of The Age of Information – from Google to […]
★★☆☆☆ In American Sniper (2014), Chris Kyle (played by Bradley Cooper) insists on keeping both eyes open when peering through the sights of his rifle. His reasoning is sound; to keep a weather eye on the rest of his surroundings. As director, Clint Eastwood seems to have ignored that advice, instead allowing his protagonist’s telescopic tunnel vision to suck […]