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Alasdair Bayman

Film Review: Joan of Arc

★★★☆☆ To many artists, from Morrissey to Victor Fleming, Joan of Arc has proved a rich canvas to reflect upon female suffrage. The aim, whether a song or film, is to interpolate the viewer into her story against the oppressive...

Film Review: A Streetcar Named Desire

★★★★☆ The quintessential American director is a hot topic for debate amongst most cinephiles. Whether it’s Welles, Reichardt or Scorsese, directors of this ilk possess a masterful skill in assessing pertinent themes throughout American’s past, present and future. Still, one...

Film Review: Chained for Life

★★★★☆ Films about filmmaking are nothing new. From Truffaut’s visionary Day for Night to The Disaster Artist, film adores observing the magic of moviemaking. However, a lesser-explored area of filmmaking is the depiction of disability and specifically neurofibromatosis on screen....

Film Review: Bait

★★★★★ Contemporary British cinema has continued to surprise and amaze in recent years with the vast array of stunning directorial debuts. From the likes of Lady Macbeth to The Levelling, such first features have introduced adept directors and actors alike...

Film Review: Notorious

★★★★★ Notorious is a masterclass of suspense, romance and technical craft. Featuring two of the most classic screen presences in Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, their on-screen chemistry plays into Hitch’s thematic obsession with desire. Kickstarting the BFI’s two-month-long retrospective on...

Film Review: Holiday

★★★☆☆ Summer and holidays on-screen conjure up iconic images of characters bathed in a splendour of heat; Ray Winstone in Sexy Beast, Alain Delon in La Piscine and Charlotte Rampling in Swimming Pool. Adding her unique spin on this unique...

Film Review: The Lion King

★★☆☆☆ After achieving critical and commercial success with 2016’s The Jungle Book, Jon Favreau once again returns to the director’s chair to digitally adapt The Lion King. Leaning heavily on the original’s musicality, more so than Mowgli and co, the film...

Film Review: Varda by Agnès

★★★★★ The cinema of Agnès Varda endures beyond time. Whether this is her first feature La Pointe Courte or the digitally playful The Gleaners & I, Varda’s cinema has always existed in its own unique space. After sadly passing away...

Film Review: The Edge

★★★★☆ On Sunday evening the world witnessed one of the greatest games of cricket ever played. Central to this match was England’s harmoniously diverse squad made up of an Irish captain, a New Zealand born all-rounder and opening batsman born...

Film Review: Don’t Look Now

★★★★★ Few films have stood the test of time as well as Nicolas Roeg’s seminal horror Don’t Look Now. Revolving around the omnipresent theme of grief (and adapted from Daphne du Maurier’s short story), the film composes a ghostly melancholic reflection...

Film Review: Apollo 11

★★★★★ From the first frame to its last, Apollo 11 observes the historic moon landings from a uniquely cinematic perspective. Paying homage to the analogue era by using exclusive footage from the time, transferred digitally from the original 65mm, Todd...

Film Review: Gloria Bell

★★★☆☆ After breaking out onto the international film scene with A Fantastic Woman, Sebastian Lelio returns to cinemas with his second English language feature Gloria Bell. A remake of his native Chilean film Gloria, in which starred the ‘Meryl Streep...