Film Review: The Blue Angel
★★★★★ The films produced in the inter-war period in Germany were among the most vibrant, innovative and politically charged in all cinema. As part of […]
Edinburgh 2019: Programme highlights
The full programme for this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival has been revealed, bolstering 18 world premieres and 72 UK premieres of films brought to […]
Film Review: Godzilla: King of the Monsters
★★★☆☆ “Let them fight” was the raison d’etre of Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla, the kaiju-centric creature feature that kickstarted Legendary Studio’s monster-verse back in 2014. Michael Dougherty’s sequel, King of the […]
Film Review: Thunder Road
★★★★☆ Opening with an excruciating but perversely funny funeral scene, Thunder Road is unapologetic in showing the rawness and devastation death can have on people. […]
Film Review: Support the Girls
★★★☆☆ The uniquely American phenomenon of Hooters-style sports bars provides the subject matter for Andrew Bujalski’s Support the Girls. More Cassavettes than Coyote Ugly, the […]
Hollywood’s most famous casino players
For decades, Hollywood has enjoyed an incredibly close relationship with casinos; whether it’s the countless major movies that have been based in and around casinos […]
Film Review: Booksmart
★★★☆☆ It seems there has long been a need for graciously uncool female protagonists in the teen coming-of-age canon, those who remind us of ourselves […]
Film Review: XY Chelsea
★★★★☆ In 2010, US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning was sentenced to thirty-five years in prison after she leaked classified documents and footage of military […]
Cannes 2019: Sibyl review
★★★☆☆ Movies love certain professions and psychotherapy is certainly one. They have to listen to people’s problems while (usually) masking their own issues. From Richard […]
Cannes 2019: Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite wins Palme d’Or
It’s been a vintage edition of the Cannes Film Festival, with many excellent contenders in the competition. The Palme d’Or went to South Korean director […]
Film Review: Zombi Child
★★★☆☆ Bertrand Bonello’s arthouse horror oddity Zombi Child works best as a film about colonial trauma and the tragic history of Haiti. Those expecting a […]
Cannes 2019: Oh Mercy! review
★★☆☆☆ It’s time Cannes called a moratorium on screening the films of French director Arnaud Desplechin until he can come back with work as good […]
Film Review: Parasite
★★★★★ Families on the lower end of the pay scale have proven fertile ground for filmmakers of late, from Hirokazy Kore-eda’s Palme d’Or-winning Shoplifters to […]
Cannes 2019: Frankie review
★★☆☆☆ A family assemble for a vacation in Portugal and to confront a looming loss in Ira Sachs’ gentle talkathon, Frankie. The film takes place in […]
Film Review: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
★★★★★ Before the first screening of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, an official from the Cannes Film Festival mounted the stage and read a […]
Cannes 2019: Portrait of a Lady on Fire review
★★★★☆ A highly flammable love affair smoulders in Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is a painter with a spark […]
Film Review: Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
★★★☆☆ Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound serves as a history lesson and welcome tribute to a crucial element of moviemaking routinely ignored. Critics […]
Cannes 2019: The Cordillera of Dreams review
★★★★☆ Chilean documentarian Patricio Guzmán’s The Cordillera of Dreams caps off an astonishing set of history-focused essay films, beginning with Nostalgia for the Light and […]