Matthew Anderson
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Film Review: I’ll See You In My Dreams
★★★☆☆ In what was his penultimate big screen appearance before an untimely passing, James Gandolfini starred alongside Julia-Louis Dreyfus in Enough Said. The awkward, bittersweet dramedy about getting back in the dating game after a spell on the sidelines is a worthy companion piece, precursor even, to Brett Haley’s I’ll See You In My Dreams.…
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Film Review: Goosebumps
★★★★☆ “R.L. Stine. Whatever happened to that guy?” Rob Letterman’s mile-a-minute, edge of your seat, raucously funny Goosebumps confirms that the 1990s (pre-He Who Shall Not Be Named) petrifier of children is alive and kicking. Donning dark horn-rimmed glasses, Jack Black is at his maniacal, magnetic best as the enigmatic writer in a wildly entertaining…
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IFFR 2016: Garbage Helicopter review
★★★☆☆ What keeps running but never gets anywhere? This riddle is posed on a number of occasions during writer-director Jonas Selber Augustsén’s head-scratcher of a debut feature. Gym-goers may answer slogging away on a treadmill but the principle could just as easily be applied to a film which is wickedly odd from start to finish.…
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IFFR 2016: As I Open My Eyes review
★★★★☆ How do you solve a problem like Farah? Principled, articulate but pig-headed, she is the whirlwind around whom Tunisian director Leyla Bouzid builds her remarkable debut feature. As I Open My Eyes is set in a very specific time and place: Tunis, summer 2010. It advocates the noble idealism, determination and exuberance of youth…
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Film Review: Youth
★★★☆☆ Youth vaunts itself as an unabashedly cinematic film. Paolo Sorrentino’s latest offering knows just how sumptuous and clever it is and is in no way ashamed to flaunt rich colours, startling compositions and overwhelming talent to point a satirical finger at the glitz and glamour of stardom. Awash with admiration for the beauty of…
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Film Review: One and Two
★★☆☆☆ The richly shot opening images of Andrew Droz Palermo’s debut feature hold much promise. Sadly, One and Two doesn’t go on to deliver. From murky depths, light penetrates a body of water which is pierced by two figures. A boy and girl contemplate the stunning reflection of a twilight sky playing on its surface.…
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Film Review: Innocence of Memories
★★★★☆ Fans of Terence Davies’ heartfelt ode to his hometown Liverpool in Of Time and the City will be drawn to Innocence of Memories, from fellow British filmmaker Grant Gee. A slow-paced yet mesmerising documentary, it interweaves an epic romance and nostalgic love letter to Istanbul to shed light on the past, present and future…
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Film Review: Lost in Karastan
★★☆☆☆ Coming to you from a newly autonomous republic somewhere in the vast plains of the Caucasus is a real oddity. Lost in Karastan – the latest offering from British filmmaker Ben Hopkins – is difficult to pin down. Modelling itself as a satirical black comedy interrogating the nature of creativity, art vs. love, and…
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Film Review: Attacking the Devil
★★★★☆ “What kind of adolescence will a ten year old boy look forward to when he has no arms, no legs and is only two feet tall? How can an eleven year old girl look forward to laughing and loving when she has no hand to be held and no legs to dance on?” This…
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DVD Review: Camp X-Ray
★★★☆☆ Camp X-Ray is one of many names by which Guantanamo Bay is known and aptly contextualises writer-director Peter Sattler’s debut feature, which is at its best when focussed on the bare bones of its storyline. A quasi-buddy film, it follows the growth of a muted kinship between rookie guard, Cole (Kristen Stewart), and detainee,…