DVD Review: The World of Kanako
★★☆☆☆ Punctuated with kind of casual bursts of grim violence which will be familiar to anyone versed in Asian extreme cinema, The World of Kanako […]
DVD Review: The Neon Demon
★★★★☆ The opening shot of Nicolas Winding Refn’s dreamlike tenth feature The Neon Demon sees Elle Fanning as rosy-cheeked model Jesse draped in macabre glory […]
DVD Review: Kate Plays Christine
★★★★☆ “Nobody sees anyone as she is, let alone an actress playing a troubled young woman 40 years after her death. They see a whole […]
DVD Review: Dekalog and Other TV Works
★★★★★ Before the French revolutionary values of liberty, equality and fraternity provided the basis for Polish writer-director Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours trilogy – the height […]
Film Review: Train to Busan
★★★★☆ If you want to see the beautiful and highly improbable spectacle of your nearest and dearest in floods of tears at the end of […]
Film Review: Into the Inferno
★★★☆☆ There’s something deeply unsettling about the unstoppable, magma-like flow of Werner Herzog’s Into the Inferno. Imperceptibly bubbling away in time with the veteran filmmaker’s […]
Film Review: Doctor Strange
★★★★☆ The Marvel Cinematic Universe is an expansive and nebulous place, the riches of which the movies have only really begun to discover. After the […]
Film Review: Burn Burn Burn
★★★☆☆ “Try not to fuck it up, but don’t worry if you do.” Full of late twenties anguish and uncertainty, this rather tongue in cheek […]
Film Review: Boyz n the Hood
★★★★☆ “Either they don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care about what’s going on in the hood.” These are the now iconic, and still deeply […]
Film Review: After Love
★★★★☆ Joachim Lafosse’s Our Children explored the desperation and unhappiness that can drive a mother to physically harm her own children. Now Lafosse is back […]
Film Africa 2016: Our picks from the programme
Set for its launch with an opening night gala showing of Mandla Dube’s Apartheid-era biopic, Kalushi: The Story of Solomon Mahlungu, Film Africa 2016 is […]
DVD Review: Paris Blues
★★★★☆ Much like the multitude of heady jazz numbers that flow throughout the film, Paris Blues is a cool, breezy and laid-back character-led romantic drama […]
DVD Review: Odds Against Tomorrow
★★★★☆ Now available on DVD and Blu-ray, Odds Against Tomorrow is also another welcome addition to the BFI’s Black Star slate. One of the most […]
DVD Review: Kids Return
★★★★☆ Proving himself once again a master of comic timing and pathos, Takeshi Kitano’s 1996 feature Kids Return represents something of a thematic medley for […]
Criterion Review: Day for Night
★★★★☆ Widely regarded as François Truffaut’s greatest masterpiece, Day for Night also signalled the end of the French New Wave and caused a life-long rift […]
The future of Bourne
The name’s Bourne, Jason Bourne. The initials may be the same, but that’s pretty much where most comparisons to James Bond end. The Bourne character […]
Film Review: Sonita
★★★☆☆ There are two concurrent and intertwining stories playing out in Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s irresistible, crowd-pleasing documentary Sonita. The main event is the tale of […]
Film Review: Queen of Katwe
★★★★☆ Even those with a limited knowledge of the game of chess will know that the queen rules the roost. Making an astonishing acting debut, […]