Film Review: ‘L’Eclisse’
★★★★☆ There are some films that are defined, or at least deeply coloured by the power and poetry of their final scenes. Christian Petzold’s Phoenix (2014) is a fine film in its own right, but is elevated by the emotional […]
Film Review: Hitman Agent 47
★☆☆☆☆ The second adaptation of the successful video game series, Hitman: Agent 47 (2015) is no good whatsoever. Everything about it feels tired and half-hearted, as if it exists purely for the studio to hold onto the rights and make as […]
Film Review: ‘Barely Lethal’
★★★☆☆ All genres go through cycles and phases. The High School movie is currently deep into a self-referential phase, in thrall to the classics of yesteryear. Barely Lethal (2015) is part of this trend, loudly winking at Mean Girls (2004), […]
FrightFest 2015: Our picks of the lineup
Returning to Leicester Square for its sixteenth year as the UK’s leading celebration of horror and fantasy cinema, Film4 FrightFest 2015 is also set to be the biggest yet. With 19 world premières, along with 16 European and 24 UK […]
Blu-ray Review: ‘Vivre Sa Vie’
★★★★★ Named by Susan Sontag as “the perfect film”, Jean-Luc Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie (1962), rereleased on Blu-ray this week by the BFI, is an unsentimental billet-doux to Anna Karina, the director’s former wife and muse. Combining the aesthetics of […]
DVD Review: ‘Iris’
★★★★☆ Having featured in a variety of documentaries that explore the fashion scene in and around New York City, the unique and irrepressible fashionista Iris Apfel now takes centre stage in one of her very own. The final feature from […]
DVD Review Queen & Country
★★★☆☆ Queen & Country (2014), which screened in the Director’s Fortnight sidebar at Cannes last year, is the second part of John Boorman’s filmic memoir, following on directly from his 1987 Best Picture Oscar nominee Hope & Glory. It’s 1952: […]
DVD Review: ‘The Falling’
★★★★☆ In a nameless girls’ school, somewhere in wet, rural England, girls are falling – in both senses. The year is 1969, and it starts with the 16-year-old Abbie (Florence Pugh). Her dusky voice is beyond her years and she’s […]
Interview: Carol Morley, ‘The Falling’
Carol Morley was in high spirits on the breezy spring morning CineVue met her (she likens press junkets to speed dating). The wind rustled in the air outside, but not with the sense of foreboding mysticism of her remarkable new […]
DVD Review: ‘Eyes Without a Face’
★★★★☆ If you only know Eyes Without a Face (1960) from the Billy Idol rock ballad, then you are in for a treat. Georges Franju’s Gallic body horror is a complex atmospheric chiller which balances graphic shocks with subtle characterisation. […]
DVD Review: ‘Dragon’s Return’
★★★★☆ “Heaven forbid if he ever comes back,” intones a village elder as Martin Lepiš, otherwise known as ‘Dragon’ (Radovan Lukavský), is led, restrained, into exile. This sequence is told in flashback to give context to the thick atmosphere of […]