Joseph Walsh
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Film Review: ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’
★★★☆☆ Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) is the second film from director Rupert Wyatt (following 2008’s The Escapist) and joins a long line of origin movies that have become popular over the past several years but thanks to a tight, albeit at times flawed, screenplay, strong script and ultimately outstanding special effects…
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DVD Review: ‘Meek’s Cutoff’
★★★★☆ I was lucky enough to catch Meek’s Cutoff (2010) at this year’s Bird’s Eye View Festival, the London-based event that celebrates women’s contribution to film. Even though director Kelly Reichardt has played down the feminist aspects of the film, focusing instead on a political angle, this film is an unequivocal historical critique of the…
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Film4 Summer Screen 2011: ‘The Apartment’
There are few settings more perfect than Somerset House to watch a film, and as you embrace the joy of sitting in the warm open air of July, laying out on a blanket staring at Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine in the 2008 restored version of Billy Wilder’s 1960 classic The Apartment at Film4 Summer…
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Film Review: ‘Arrietty’
★★☆☆☆ Studio Ghibli is a name familiar to many, conjuring to the mind titles such as Princess Mononoke (1997), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) and My Neighbour Tortoro (1988). Their latest endeavour is an adaptation of Mary Norton’s children’s classic The Borrowers, re-titled for modern audiences as Arrietty (2010).The story follows 14-year-old Arrietty and the rest…
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Film Review: ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’
★☆☆☆☆ I have never really been comfortable with Captain America – star of new Marvel blockbuster Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) – as a superhero. Unlike Batman, Spider-Man or the majority of his The Avengers [2012] posse, there is no real edge to his character. He is simply a soldier with disturbing jingoistic attitudes,…
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Film Review: ‘The Big Picture’
★★☆☆☆ The Big Picture (2010) makes Swiss cheese look structurally sound. The central problem is the plot which, as anyone who watches a lot of films know, must be good if you’re trying to make a traditional, linear thriller. The story is about Paul (Romain Duris), who on the surface is a successful man who…
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Film Review: ‘Beginners’
★★★★☆ Mike Mills’ Beginners (2010) is an incredibly intelligent and sensitive film; it is well made, carefully thought out and has bags of quirky humour. The plot focus on a graphic designer Oliver whose world is shaken to its core when he finds out firstly that his father, Hal (played with camp relish by Christopher…
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DVD Releases: ‘You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger’
It pains me to give a Woody Allen film a meagre two stars. I thought long and hard about the good aspects of You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010) – a host of well respected actors including Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas, Naomi Watts and Josh Brolin, plus the fact that this was to…
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Film Review: ‘The Princess of Montpensier’
★★★★☆ Bertrand Tavernier’s The Princess of Montpensier (2010) is one of the finer examples in recent years of a good historical romp, with love affairs and sword-fights aplenty realised in an intelligent and captivating manner. Stylistically, it is reminiscent of Ridley Scott’s The Duellists (1977), and the film possesses that lavish yet gritty feel that…
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Film Review: ‘A Separation’
★★★★☆ Writer and director Asghar Fahadi’s latest film A Separation (2011) is a testament to what is wonderful about world cinema and approaches a subject universal to all. Whether you are from the East, South, North or West, at some point we are all in a relationship that faces difficulties. A Separation approaches theses difficulties…
