Cannes 2013: ‘The Great Gatsby’ review
★★☆☆☆ Everyone understands that a Baz Luhrmann film – from the imagination that brought us Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge and Australia –...
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
Cannes 2013: Palme d’Or dark horses
In competition at the 66th Cannes Film Festival, French director Arnaud des Pallières’ Michael Kohlhaas is a 16th century revenge drama featuring a strong...
DVD Review: ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’
★★★☆☆ It’s almost impossible for non-Italians to understand the irresistible rise of Silvio Berlusconi. The tendency is often to write him off with the...
DVD Review: ‘Boxing Day’
★★★★☆ In Bernard Rose’s Boxing Day (2012), Danny Huston plays Basil, a business man living on the low end of venture capitalism. His credit...
DVD Review: ‘Everything or Nothing’
★★★☆☆ 2012 will no doubt be seen as a watershed year for 007. On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, one of the most...
Film Review: ‘Midnight Son’
★★☆☆☆ Scott Leberecht’s lo-fi horror Midnight Son (2011) follows Jacob (Zak Kilberg), an anaemic young man with a problem – no matter what he...
Film Review: ‘Dead Europe’
★★☆☆☆ In Dead Europe (2012), Australian photographer Isaac (Ewen Leslie) heads to Greece (his family’s home nation) for the first time, presenting an exhibition...
Film Review: ‘Confession of a Child of the Century’
★☆☆☆☆ Adapted from Alfred de Musset’s 1836 autobiographical novel of the same name and premiered at Cannes, Sylvie Verheyde’s Confession of a Child of...
