Venice
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Venice 2015: ‘Black Mass’ review
★★★☆☆ After his portrayal of Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger in Michael Mann’s Public Enemies (2009), Johnny Depp returns to the criminal underworld with his take on James ‘Whitey’ Bulger in Scott Cooper’s glossy, competent yet strangely unengaging Black Mass (2015). Adapted from the book by Dick Leher, Cooper’s film tells the story of the…
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Venice 2015: ‘Everest’ review
★★★☆☆ In 1996, Kiwi Rob Hall and his company Adventure Consultants took a team of climbers along with a group of paying clients to Kathmandu with the hope of reaching the summit of the world’s highest mountain on 10 May. The disaster that subsequently occurred was recorded in memoirs by several of the survivors, most…
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Venice 2015: ‘A Monster with a Thousand Heads’ review
★★★☆☆ Opening the Orizzonti (Horizons) sidebar at the 72nd Venice Film Festival today, A Monster with a Thousand Heads (2015) is a witty and efficient drama from Rodrigo Plá about a woman pushed to the edge by bureaucracy and an indifferent society. Jan Raluy plays the woman in question, Sonia Bonet. Her husband has cancer…
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Venice 2015: Read our Venice 72 preview
The 72nd Venice Film Festival will run from the 2-12 September and promises one of the hottest line ups for years. The already announced opening film, Baltasar Kormákur’s Everest, continues the start big philosophy of Gravity and Birdman of the previous two years. Johnny Depp’s return to ‘proper’ acting, Black Mass, has also already been…
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Cannes 2015: Jacques Audiard’s ‘Dheepan’ wins Palme d’Or
The results are in. The closing ceremony of the 68th edition of the Cannes film festival began more like the Oscars than the glamorous, abrupt ceremonies of old; with John C. Reilly scat-singing and a sense of anticipation with a field which was more open than previous years. Son of Saul was the Palme d’Or…
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Cannes 2015: ‘Youth’ review
★★★☆☆ Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth (2015), his latest meditation on aging, memory and mortality, premièred at Cannes in competition today to assorted cheers and boos. This review is going to fall somewhere between the two. Retired composer Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine) is spending his holiday undergoing a variety of health treatments in a spa resort in…
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London 2014: Our guide to this year’s LFF programme
The BFI London Film Festival returns to the nation’s capital for its 58th edition this week (8 October), bringing with it the promise of ten days of cinematic delights for cineastes and casual movie fans alike. Opening this year’s festivities is Morten Tyldum’s The Imitation Game, one of several British biopics with serious award season…
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Toronto 2014: ‘Venice’ review
★★★☆☆ Despite its title, Kiki Álvarez’s Venice (2014) is very much about Cuba. Specifically, it’s a rarely seen independent film from the country, marking its director’s first appearance at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival. Named after a city to which its characters will never travel, it is clearly imbued with an aspirational spirit, but…
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Venice 2014: Andersson’s ‘Pigeon’ is a Golden Lion
Surprisingly given the encroachment of the Toronto International Film Festival and the ongoing rivalry with Cannes, the Venice Film Festival still manages to provide a top quality programme. Although there were definitely some notable absences this year – Paul Thomas Anderson for one – the dearth of blockbuster fare allowed room for a much more…
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Venice 2014: ‘The Postman’s White Nights’
★★★★☆ If Anton Chekhov had been a reality show creator, Andrei Konchalovsky’s The Postman’s White Nights (2014) might well have been the result. Playing in competition at the 71st Venice Film Festival, this beautifully realised picture tells the story of a small, marginalised village in Northern Russia on the banks of Lake Kenozero. Using for…