Film reviews and more
Bust out the proverbial popcorn because it’s that time of year again. Yes – you know what we’re talking about. The Academy Awards are almost here. On Sunday 4 March, the red carpet will roll out at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. The Oscars ceremony is always entertaining. Even if is sometimes […]
One of the biggest names to emerge from Chile’s new golden era of cinema, Sebastián Lelio first achieved international recognition with his fourth film Gloria, a dynamic comedy-drama about a middle-aged woman’s ill-fated romance with a retired naval officer. This week marks the release of his hugely anticipated follow-up A Fantastic Woman, a […]
We all enjoy going to the cinema to catch a movie from time to time. And while there’s plenty of fun to be had with movies based on true events, one of the joys of watching films is that the content isn’t always real: it’s a chance to kick back, relax and enjoy […]
★★★★★ After languishing for decades with sub-par public domain versions, George Romero’s classic Night of the Living Dead is finally granted the release it deserves, with a lovingly restored print. For the first time, the craft and artistry involved in the first modern zombie film is fully visible. Few filmmakers can lay claim […]
★★☆☆☆ The latest film from Moon director Duncan Jones, Mute is a weak sci-fi neo-noir about a speechless man who goes in search of his missing girlfriend, only to discover a dark underworld. Left mute by a childhood boating accident, for which his strictly religious Amish mother refused medical treatment to cure, Leo Beller […]
★★★☆☆ Hackney-born actor, DJ and now filmmaker Idris Elba makes his directorial debut with Yardie, a Caribbean twist on the well-worn conventions of the British gangster movie, based on the book by Victor Headley. The film follows a Jamaican drug courier called D (Aml Ameen) who leaves the gang violence of Kingston, Jamaica […]
★★★★☆ While Middle Eastern cinema seems to be having a fresh resurgence of late, films that shine a light on ordinary people in these countries remain few and far between. With an industry all but decimated by years of political and religious unrest in the area, many fans of Arab cinema have had […]
Who doesn’t love a good standalone film? But have you ever watched a cult classic and secretly wished, “I want more”? You get so engrossed in a storyline, feel such a connection to the characters and just like that it’s over – with some never returning to the screen again, despite the clamouring […]
★★★★☆ Acclaimed independent filmmaker Josephine Decker (Butter on the Latch, Thou Wast Mild and Lovely) returns to UK cinemas with Madeline’s Madeline, a visionary study of the analogy between creativity and insanity. Acting requires pulling oneself inside-out psychologically and blurring the lines between personal and imagined experiences. It’s something Madeline (Helena Howard), the […]
★★★☆☆ In light of the recent allegations of sexual harassment aimed squarely at the film industry, Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane – an i-Phone shot thriller about a woman pushed to the precipice of a mental breakdown – is a surprisingly shallow slice of schlock cinema. “I always liked you in blue,” a tender voiceover […]
★★★★☆ “The haters always say ‘Tonya, tell the truth’. There’s no such thing as truth!” No truer words have been spoken about ice skating’s most notorious ex-skater, and with I, Tonya, the time has come for us to find out…or has it? In 1994, the world became fascinated with the latest celebrity scandal […]
James Erskine is an accomplished director and documentarian who has explored a number of different sporting greats through the medium of film. His latest, The Ice King, tells the life story of John Curry: a pioneer in the world of figure skating, who redefined the sport by incorporating elements of performance art into […]
★★★★☆ John Curry might not be a name immediately recognisable to younger sporting fans, but after a successful competitive career on the ice – topped off with a gold medal during the 1976 Winter Olympics – he blazed a trail in the world of ice-dancing. His innovations are still unparalleled and the cross-pollination […]
★★★☆☆ You wait years for a gritty social drama set within a farming community, only for three to show up at almost the same time. Fresh off the heels of Francis Lee’s brilliantly received God’s Own Country and Hope Dickson Leach’s critically acclaimed drama The Levelling, director Clio Barnard (The Selfish Giant) returns […]
★★★☆☆ Training his eye on the 2017 memorial service held at Berlin’s Treptower Park, a site of pilgrimage for the Soviet diaspora, Sergei Loznitsa’s Victory Day is an absorbing study of nationalism and the collective memory of traumatic experiences. After the Second World War ended, and Berlin was divided up into Soviet, American, British and […]
★★★☆☆ A series of provocative and often heartbreaking conversations between the past and the present, Irene Lusztig’s Yours in Sisterhood, is a collective portrait of feminism, and a beautiful paean to the lost art of letter writing. Beginning as an insert in New York Magazine, before becoming the first ever mainstream feminist magazine […]
★★★★☆ Powerfully conveying a longing for escape from ordinary life, Hu Bo’s An Elephant Sitting Still is a strangely alluring, four-hour portrait of the disillusionment and hollow sense of emptiness experienced by those living in a society marked by violent individualism. Under the perpetually grey sky of a run-down industrial town in northern […]
★★★★☆ It’s not difficult to guess which beast is being referred to in the title of Katharina Mückstein’s coming-of-age drama L’Animale. In rural Austria, Mati (Sophie Stockinger) is only a few weeks away from passing her final exams. But matters of the heart soon take precedence over a graduation diploma in this charming, precise […]