Patrick Gamble
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Film Review: ‘Deliver Us from Evil’
★★☆☆☆ The bible has long served as one of the great repositories of supernatural folklore in western culture. It raises its head again in Scott Derrickson’s Deliver Us from Evil (2014), where a series of ominous ruminations about faith and the enduring battle between good and evil becomes curiously combined with the pseudo-spiritual music of…
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DVD Review: ‘Labor Day’
★★☆☆☆ Based on the Joyce Maynard novel of the same name, Labor Day (2013) sees Canadian director Jason Reitman undertake a marked departure from the forthright yet blithe approach that made his indie-spirited offerings such as Juno (2007) and Young Adult (2011) such mainstream hits. Here, Reitman cavorts with heightened melodrama and nervous tension in…
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DVD Review: ‘Visitors’
★★★☆☆ A trance-like meditation on humanity’s relationship with technology, Godfrey Reggio’s non-narrative documentary Visitors (2013) is an anthropological examination of postmodernity and capitalism’s affects on human evolution. A poetic montage of intensely moving imagery, the profundity of Reggio’s latest allows the audience to study themselves through the eyes of another, and in doing so attempt…
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Special Feature: A Century of Chinese Cinema at the BFI
This July, the BFI’s A Century of Chinese Cinema season (which runs all the way up until 7 October) shifts its focus towards the illustrious wuxia and the visually stunning, allegorical dimensions of the Fourth and Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers. Chinese cinema has always been inextricably linked to the country’s fluctuating sociopolitical landscape, with…
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DVD Review: ‘In Bloom’
★★★★☆ Based on her own experiences growing up in Georgia, Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross’ In Bloom (2013) uses adolescence as the conduit in which to explore the confused identity of a country in transition. Perceptive and deftly handled, In Bloom transcends the usual coming of age clichés to depict a captivating portrait of urban…
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DVD Review: ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’
★★★★☆ Moonrise Kingdom (2013) was the final nail in the coffin for Wes Anderson’s detractors, with many calling for a moratorium on the director’s wilfully idiosyncratic sensibilities. Whilst The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) is unlikely to win over any of his critics, the manner in which the American auteur embroiders his distinctive style with an…
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DVD Review: ‘The Guillotines’
★★☆☆☆ From Andrew Lau, the renowned director of Infernal Affairs (2002), comes The Guillotines (2012), an erratic wuxia epic that struggles to conjoin the steampunk weapon-play of its elaborate and explosive overture, with the theatrically tedious staging of the historical epic which follows. Set during China’s Manchurian-ruled Qing Dynasty, the visual spectacle of The Guillotines…
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Film Review: ‘Mistaken for Strangers’
★★★★☆ Mistaken for Strangers (2013) is a rockumentary like no other: a behind-the-scenes expose of indie rock darlings The National from the perspective of Tom Berninger, the younger brother of the band’s lead vocalist, Matt. Tom previously only had a couple of zero-budget horrors under his belt (including a film about a murderous barbarian with…
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Edinburgh 2014: ‘Uncertain Terms’ review
★★★★☆ Nathan Silver has been gradually nurturing a reputation as a director with a deft eye for detail and an astonishing ability for documenting the seemingly insignificant anxieties of modern life. Edinburgh Film Festival select Uncertain Terms (2014) is his most compelling and accomplished film to date, a small but deceptively complex character-driven drama set…
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Edinburgh 2014: ‘Snowpiercer’ review
★★★★★ A stunning, visionary example of dystopian science fiction cinema at its very best, South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer (2013) – based in the French graphic novel – is a blockbuster of gargantuan proportions. Starring a cavalcade of well-known faces including Tilda Swinton, Chris Evans and Song Kang-ho, this futuristic allegory beautifully imbues radical…