Film reviews and more
★★★★★ Touch of Evil (1958) proceeds with one of the most celebrated long-takes in screen history. The sequence is a marvel of technical virtuosity and staged action. From the very start, Orson Welles’s grubby and sweaty […]
★★★★☆ Taking the step up from producer to director, with Love & Mercy (2014) Bill Pohlad successfully delivers a biopic like no other – a tale of endurance based on the turbulent life of Beach Boys […]
★★★★☆ A scathing symposium on the fallacy of a ‘post-racial’ America, Justin Simien’s Dear White People (2014) aims to expose the myth that ‘racism is over’. At a time when the conversation concerning racism is roaring […]
★★★☆☆ With the continuous addition of films to the coming-of-age canon, it can often feel as though there is a dearth of originality. What is offered up by The Choir (2014) has a promising set-up that […]
★★☆☆☆ A loose remake of the 1973 José Giovanni film of the same name, Rachid Bouchareb’s Two Men in Town (2014) transplants the original’s critique of the French judicial system to New Mexico. Starring Forest Whitaker […]
★★★★☆ Dr. Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) is a linguist, someone who has made language acquisition her life’s work; she has literally written the book on the subject. She lives in New York with her busy doctor […]
★★★★★ Mona Lisa, released in 1986 and written/directed by Irish poet and novelist Neil Jordan, shines out as a rough diamond, a masterpiece of British cinema undeniably worthy of its classical title. In one of the […]
★★★★☆ From the moody opening – a beautifully orchestrated slow-motion (and mostly silent) attack on a neon-lit nightclub – it’s immediately clear that Hyena (2014) is a film which is reaching for something outside of the […]
★★☆☆☆ Lo and behold: Hollywood has produced the death knell in the slicker-than-a-baby-seal Focus (2015). It’s a good-looking genre piece, but the only con this film manages to pull off successfully in its 105-minute runtime is […]
★☆☆☆☆ The inclusion and modern interpretation of literary classics like Homer’s The Iliad and tales of Oedipus the King juxtaposed with the detrimental dialogue present throughout the entire film is just one of many reasons as […]
★★★★☆ Diao Yinan’s noir tale Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014) bagged him the Golden Bear award at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. For his portrayal of a boorish, obsessive cop haunted by an old case, […]
Karlovy Vary is the festival scene’s best kept secret. The Czech festival may not enjoy the same cachet as Berlin, Locarno or even non-competitive festivals like London, but the consistently adventurous programming it’s celebrated for in […]