Joseph Walsh
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DVD Review: ‘The Mizoguchi Collection’
★★★★★ The label ‘master filmmaker’ is often overused, but in the case of prolific Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi, it is totally justified. Ranked among the likes of Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirô Ozu, Mizoguchi had a directing career spanning 33 years and over 50 films, beginning with what he considered his first ‘serious’ effort, Sisters of…
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Film Review: ‘Hard Boiled Sweets’
★★☆☆☆ British gangster flick Hard Boiled Sweets (2012) is the feature length debut of writer and director David L.G. Hughes, and boasts an all-British cast including Peter Wight (My Week With Marilyn) and Elizabeth Berrington (In Bruges). The film follows the highs and lows of London crime boss Jimmy The Gent (Wight), who’s recently fallen…
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Film Review: ‘A Man’s Story’
★★★★☆ As the enigmatic real-life star of Varon Bonicos’ 2010 documentary A Man’s Story, Oswald Boateng makes for captivating viewing in what is a well-structured and fascinating film about one of the UK’s foremost fashion designers to the stars. As director, Bonicos spent 12 years documenting Boateng’s personal and professional life, examining his struggles to…
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Special Feature: ‘Directory of World Cinema: Hollywood’
Intellect’s The Directory of World Cinema has many times proven its worth as an invaluable resource for film fanatics and academics alike, but with American Hollywood, edited by Lincoln Geraghty, the series has out done itself. For those unaware of the series it collates essays written by scholars and critics on films from around the world…
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Blu-ray Review: ‘Repo Man’
★★★★☆ Rereleased on Blu-ray under Eureka’s Masters of Cinema label, 1984 cult classic Repo Man is the debut film of actor, writer and director Alex Cox, and become a sleeper hit amongst sci-fi fans upon release thanks to its hugely entertaining mix of surreal humour and light satire, engaging everything from conspiracy theories to aliens.…
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Film Review: ‘Wanderlust’
★★★☆☆ Role Models (2008) director David Wain, returns with the much funnier and more entertaining Wanderlust (2012), which reunites comic actor Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston for the first time since Friends. Young couple George (Rudd) and Linda (Aniston) live in a tiny apartment in the West Village, New York, carrying out their busy urban…
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Film Review: ‘Hadewijch’
★★★☆☆ French director Bruno Dumont, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at both the 1999 and 2009 Cannes Film Festival for his films L’humanité and Flanders, returns with his latest slowburning offering Hadewijch (2009), starring the remarkably talented Julie Sokolowski.Céline (Julie Sokolowski) is an extremely devout theology student living in a convent, nicknamed ‘Hadewijch’ by…
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Berlin 2012: ‘Bel Ami’ review
★☆☆☆☆ There are a mountain of problems with Declan Donnellan and Nick Omerod’s adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s novel Bel Ami, which stars Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci and Kristin Scott Thomas. A combination of weak screenplay, dreadful direction and poor performances add up to what is undoubtedly one of the most disappointing films…
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Berlin 2012: ‘A Royal Affair’ review
★★★★☆ Nikolaj Arcel’s lavish historical drama A Royal Affair (En Kongelig Affære, 2012), starring Mads Mikkelsen, Berlinale Silver Bear winner Mikkel Følsgaard and Swedish star Alicia Vikander, is a fine example of an incredibly well-made and enjoyable costume drama that perfectly balances romance and politics against the backdrop of 18th century Denmark.Set during the reign…
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Berlin 2012: ‘Avalon’ review
★★★★★ Avalon (2011), directed by Axel Petersén, maintains Swedish cinema’s reputation for outstanding films with a captivating thriller starring Swedish comedian and buddy of Mick Jagger, Johannes Brost. Set in the wealthy town of Båstad on the Swedish coastline, the story follows club promoter Janne (Brost), a man who has never really grown up. Along…