Venice 2015: ‘Equals’ review
★★☆☆☆ British star Nicholas Hoult hasn’t had much luck with the future this year so far. In Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) he played...
Film Reviews & More
Most Recent. In John Bleasdale.
6 September 2024
Film Review: Firebrand
★★☆☆☆ “An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,” Percy Shelley once wrote in his sonnet England in 1819. He was firing his barbs at King George III but the words could just as well be used for any number of English monarchs including Henry VIII.
26 July 2024
Film Review: About Dry Grasses
★★★★★ Turkish master director Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns to the Cannes Croisette with About Dry Grasses, a wonderful wintry meditation on male fragility and the way we often make our own hells and then deceive ourselves that we’re trapped.
21 June 2024
Film Review: Green Border
★★★★☆ From sub-Saharan Africa to Afghanistan, Syria to Iraq and Iran, the climate crisis, drought, war, and oppression has created a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. It is treated as an ethical conundrum, but it isn’t. Either we wish to save those who are in danger of dying, or all our talk of human rights is just so much hot air. This is the core concern of Green Border.
John Bleasdale
Venice 2015: ‘The Danish Girl’ review
★★☆☆☆ Following his Oscar-winning turn as Stephen Hawking in James Marsh’s The Theory of Everything (2014), British actor Eddie Redmayne makes his bow on...
Venice 2015: ‘The Childhood of a Leader’
★★★★★ Part of the Orizzonti sidebar at the 72nd Venice Film Festival, actor Brady Corbet’s debut feature The Childhood of a Leader (2015) combines...
Film Review: Spotlight
★★★★☆ Playing out of competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival, Spotlight (2015) is a gripping drama able to stand alongside Alan J. Pakula’s...
Venice 2015: ‘Looking for Grace’ review
★★★☆☆ Cut-up family tragicomedy Looking for Grace (2015) is Sue Brooks’ fifth feature film and premièred in competition at the Venice Film Festival today....
Venice 2015: ‘Francofonia’ review
★★★★☆ The last time Russian director Aleksandr Sokurov was on the Lido he won the Golden Lion with his boisterous and vivid interpretation of...
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...
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...
