Daniel Gumble
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Film Review: ‘Attenberg’
★★☆☆☆ It’s somewhat remarkable that a film so concerned with garnering a sense of intrigue and off-the-wall quirkiness as Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Attenberg (2010) could end up being so unremarkable.With sex and death at the heart of proceedings, the story focuses upon the Attenberg’s withdrawn and awkward protagonist Marina, and her close but unusual friendship…
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Film Review: ‘The Tree’
★★★☆☆ Anyone who has seen Lars von Trier’s disturbing yet majestic exploration into the realm of human grief and suffering Antichrist (2009) may well be able to spot one or two similarities in Julie Bertuccelli’s The Tree (2011).The film is based around the character of Dawn (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her struggle to deal with the…
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Film Review: ‘The Beaver’
★★★☆☆ We may only be halfway through the year, but it is my firm belief that the remainder of 2011 will not see a more divisive or bizarre offering as Jodie Foster’s The Beaver (2011). This really is one of the most unbalanced, incohesive, disturbing, vomit-inducing, yet strangely captivating movies I have seen in some…
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Blu-ray Review: ‘Apocalypse Now’
★★★★★ It’s difficult to find something new to say about Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 masterpiece Apocalypse Now. Just about everything that can be said of this genuinely mesmeric work of art has been said a million times before. However, while it is cited by many as the greatest war movie of all time, I for…
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Blu-ray Review: ‘Taxi Driver’
★★★★☆ I feel as though I should begin this review by stating a very simple fact: Taxi Driver (1976) is the greatest film in the history of cinema. Never before or since has a film managed to comprise such an astonishing array of elements to create such a powerful work of art. With each of…
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Special Feature: Wikio Top 20 UK cinema blogs – June 2011
It’s that time of the month again, when Wikio’s finest compile their definitive list of the Top 20 cinema blogs in the UK. CineVue is, once again, delighted to find itself among this Top 20, this time holding its position at number 17. Over the next month we will be doing our absolute best to…
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DVD Review: ‘Bloodrayne: The Third Reich’
★☆☆☆☆ It probably doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a cinematic combination between Nazis and vampires is, at best, a misguided concept. However, if one were so inclined to pursue such a ridiculous idea, then it should at least be conducted with a sense of humour or a tongue-in-cheek slant.Yet somehow, the atrocity…
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ICA: ‘Eraserhead’
This week the ICA hosted a special screening of a genuine masterpiece of cult, avant garde cinema. Ever since its release thirty four years ago, David Lynch’s Eraserhead (1977) has remained a defining moment in the world of experimental cinema and, in my view, remains Lynch’s crowning achievement.As one of surrealist cinema’s finest exponents, David…
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DVD Releases: ‘Abel’
Those familiar with the name Diego Luna will most likely associate him with his breakthrough performance as Tenoch Iturbide, in Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También (2001). Having recently appeared alongside Sean Penn in Milk (2008) Luna is now plying his trade as director, with his debut feature Abel (2010) receiving critical acclaim in abundance.Part…
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DVD Releases: ‘The Tourist’
With a film of such critical acclaim as 2006’s The Lives of Others under his belt, it is absolutely unfathomable as to how Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has managed to create a film so desperately pathetic and unforgivably cringe-inducing as The Tourist (2010). Set in and around the glamorous and visually resplendent city of Venice,…