Ben Nicholson
-
Kinoteka 2013: ‘Manhunt’ review
★★★☆☆ Having recently found himself in harsh and grim post-war Poland for Wojciech Smarzowski’s sombre Rose (Róza, 2011), Marcin Dorocinski is back again in award-winning wartime drama, Manhunt (Oblawa, 2012). On this occasion, he is part of the Polish resistance during the conflict rather then attempting to build a life after it, but the results…
-
Kinoteka 2013: ‘Supermarket’ review
★★★☆☆ Fashioning a compelling yarn from a single shift at a supermarket was always likely to be a challenge for writer/director Maciej Zak. Despite said shift being an extra-long, New Year’s Eve affair, and the staff in question security guards, it still sounds less than riveting. Yet Zak manages to pull it off with his…
-
Kinoteka 2013: ‘Shameless’ review
★★★☆☆ Tales of incest are unlikely to be the easiest of sells, but director Filip Marczewski does an admirable job of handling said material in Shameless (Bez wstydu, 2012). An intense melodrama that screened last weekend as part of the 11th Polish Film Festival, it deftly handles its subject matter and explores the lead characters…
-
Kinoteka 2013: ‘Rose’ review
★★★☆☆ Originally populated by Polish settlers, the rural villages of Masuria were aggressively Germanised in the half-century leading up to the advent of World War II, which ultimately led to them being considered as one of the most loyal regions to the Fatherland. Their ethnic autonomy was largely stamped out during this period, and was…
-
Kinoteka 2013: ‘Escape from the ‘Liberty’ City’ review
★★★★★ Intellectual Polish director Wojciech Marcezewski was no stranger to his country’s censors, and exploited this to the full in his absurdist comedy, Escape From the ‘Liberty’ Cinema (Ucieczka z kina ‘Wolnosc’, 1990). A film that featured in the Un Certain Regard selection at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, it was recently screened at London’s…
-
DVD Review: ‘Community’
★★☆☆☆ Evoking The Blair Witch Project (1999) with its opening snippets of residents alluding to a local urban legend, at first glance Community (2012) appears to be yet another entry into the found footage sub-genre. However, Jason Ford’s debut feature swiftly discards such trappings, revealing itself as a modern British hybrid combining the recent ‘hoodie…
-
Kinoteka 2013: 11th Polish Film Festival preview
With Polish recently declared the most widely spoken non-native language in England and Wales, the timing seems perfect for a UK-based celebration of the country’s cinematic expression. The annual Polish Film Festival, Kinoteka, is in its 11th year now and will be running during March; primarily in London with screenings also scheduled for Belfast, Edinburgh…
-
DVD Review: ‘Stitches’
★★☆☆☆ Fans of absurdist Geordie comic Ross Noble will likely have been salivating at the prospect of low-budget Irish horror-comedy, Stitches (2012). Bringing his surreal brand of humour in tow, he stars at the eponymous character in Conor McMahon’s gleefully gory film. One to avoid for coulrophobes, it sees Noble’s undead clown wreaking havoc on…
-
Film Review: ‘Hi-So’
★★★☆☆ Thai director Aditya Assarat’s debut film, Wonderful Town (2007), saw a quiet romance set amidst a community mourning in the wake of the 2004 tsunami. Whilst his sophomore feature does shift away from it slightly, Hi-So (2010) – and its first half in particular – is still haunted by the spectre of that devastating…
-
Film Review: ‘Safe Haven’
★☆☆☆☆ American author Nicholas Sparks has been watching his novels re-purposed for the big screen for over a decade now. The Notebook (2004) is perhaps the most widely adored example, though it hardly garnered universal acclaim; still, it did good business at the box office and paved the way for a stream of further Sparks…