CineVue
For the latest reviews of arthouse, documentary and indie film in cinemas and on the festival circuit.
★★★★☆ Ten years, nineteen films and the most audacious experiment in franchise filmmaking ever: the conclusion to Marvel’s grand project has finally arrived. The biggest entry in the studio’s series to date, Avengers: Infinity War is at once exhausting, exhilarating and triumphant. Thanos is coming. Ever since the Mad Titan Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Loosely based on the ‘Beast of Jersey’ serial killer who terrorised island residents in the 1960s, writer-director Michael Pearce’s feature debut is an ambitious, deliciously dark psychodrama. Bolstered by two star performances, Beast is equal parts modern gothic fairytale and crime thriller. Following an eerie prologue with Moll (Jessie Continue Reading
One of the greatest things about poker is the drama of the game itself. Just imagine the thrill professional players feel while they play, knowing that a single card could change their lives forever. Knowing how popular poker is and what a huge public it appeals to, many Hollywood directors Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Cary Grant will forever be one of Hollywood’s brightest stars. But icons rarely come fully formed, and Leo McCarey’s 1937 film was where Grant’s persona finally coalesced after a string of so-so supporting roles. The latest addition to the Criterion Collection, The Awful Truth is the first of Grant’s classic Continue Reading
★★★★★ A series of brutal killings, happening seemingly at random and by multiple killers, are connected by strange ‘X’ shapes carved into the victims’ chests. The perpetrators are apparently unmotivated and cannot account for their actions. When detective Takabe (Kōji Yakusho) is called to investigate, all signs point to an Continue Reading
Years are just twelve months during which excellent, and some not that awesome, movies are released. Every film fan greets each new year with a long list of titles that are expected to hit the theatres in the months to come, hopeful to see them all. Sometimes we are into Continue Reading
In a sea of incredibly strange films, there are thousands upon thousands of moving pictures that have made the world a better place through their storylines. Thanks to the internet we now have the opportunity to find about absolutely everything that pops in our minds. By living in an era Continue Reading
It’s hard to believe people found horror movies scary in the past. If Frankenstein’s monster or Count Dracula graced the screen today, young kids wouldn’t even flinch. Adults would walk out of the theater. Ghosts were even worse because they stuck actors underneath white sheets. You could buy Halloween costumes Continue Reading
★★★★☆ One of the most important filmmakers in Taiwan, Hou Hsiao-Hsien was once lauded as “one of the three directors most crucial to the future of cinema”. This new Masters of Cinema set from Eureka incorporates three of Hou’s early films: Cute Girl, The Green, Green Grass of Home and The Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ The plot of Blumhouse’s latest horror Truth or Dare, in so far as it can be discerned by human eyes, sees a group of sexy college students getting lured into a deadly drinking game whilst on Spring Break in Mexico. So far, so generic. Led by level-headed Olivia (Lucy Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa (My Joy, In the Fog, Maidan) returns to fiction filmmaking with A Gentle Creature: a gloomy, timely tale of a nameless woman trying to track down her incarcerated husband in remote rural Russia. Since his last fictional work with In the Fog, Loznitsa has directed a slew Continue Reading
★★★★★ The expression goes “Home is where the heart is”, but in Valeska Grisebach’s terrific new film Western, home is somewhere to escape from in pursuit of fresh experiences, new opportunities, home is associated with painful memories and familial scars. As in the genre from which the film takes its Continue Reading
Xavier Legrand is an actor and director whose Just Before Losing Everything was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. His first feature Custody, a powerful film which explores the anguish and anxiety caused by a violent father, won the Silver Lion at Venice last year. We Continue Reading
★★★★☆ In France, a woman dies every two and a half days as a result of domestic violence. Xavier Legrand’s feature debut, Custody, a hard-hitting social drama and winner of the Silver Lion, attempts to raise awareness of this harrowing subject through the powerful medium of cinema. Legrand builds on Continue Reading
With the lead-up dominated by thinkpieces over Netflix’s exclusion from this year’s Cannes competition lineup, it was something of a relief to finally be able to discuss the film’s that would be vying for the Palme d’Or and Un Certain Regard accolades. With 18 out of a potential 20 Palme d’Or Continue Reading