Adam Lowes

★★★☆☆ Another week, another anniversary celebration of a firm favourite from the decade that continues to be more influential across the modern pop culture landscape than any other time period. In an era when Winona Ryder was the celebrated alternative American sweetheart, and Christian Slater could still get away with his junior Jack Nicholson routine,…

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★★★★☆ 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 of modern…

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★★★★☆ The beautifully constructed opening credits to Billy Wilder’s The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes are set fifty years after the character’s supposed death, where his personal artefacts are being reopened and methodically inspected. It suggests that what we’re about to witness is the ‘real’ story behind the fabled detective. Even by 1970 – the…

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★★★☆☆ Following the success of Night of the Living Dead, the late George A. Romero became something of a one-man movie studio in his adopted city of Pittsburgh. Romero didn’t opt for the obvious and took a much more unconventional, challenging route.Given that reluctance to adhere to expectations, it’s a pity that his sophomoric effort…

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★★★☆☆ There’s blood and banter in equal measure throughout Benjamin Barfoot’s dark, irreverent comedy horror Double Date. The thundering opening credits, accompanied by Swedish psych-rockers Goat, are indication that a unique spin on ‘lad culture’ lies ahead. The well-meaning but wet Jim (played with comic aplomb and a sweet sincerity by the film’s writer (Danny…

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★★★★☆ An Asian gentleman boisterously raising a glass to “this damn country, which we love and hate” perfectly encapsulates the conflicted nature of the immigrant experience in Stephen Frears’ wry take on capitalist-era London through the prism of first generation British Pakistanis.The third feature from the hugely prolific Frears (and the first of Working Title’s…

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★★★★☆ It’s rare to see a rites of passage film told exclusively from the female perspective. With this BFI-sanctioned re-release, we’re privy to not one but two young women as they awkwardly navigate their way through adolescence. Diane Kurys’ 1977 autobiographical debut – known in its native country of France as the altogether more enticing…

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