Patrick Gamble
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Film Review: Remainder
★★★★☆ Can memories be trusted to document the past? Visual artist Omar Fast’s ambitious debut Remainder, an adaptation of Tom McCarthy’s eponymous novel questions the limitations of art as a tool to interpret history. Combining the devious logic of its source material with a stand-out performance by Tom Sturridge, Remainder presents the filmmaking process as…
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DVD Review: Alan Clarke at the BBC
★★★★★ During David Leland’s introduction to Alan Clarke’s Road, originally aired as part a retrospective of the director’s work in 1991 he argues that Clarke’s distinct form of social realism is “a fine example of the uniqueness of British television…part of a vanishing species under threat from government policy of abandoning public service broadcasting to…
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Transilvania 2016: United States of Love review
★★★★☆ Back in 2013, Polish director Tomasz Wasilewski screened his sophomore feature Floating Skyscrapers at the Transilvania Film Festival. This daring tale of an intense gay romance in a staunchly Catholic nation saw Wasilewski walk away with the best director award. This year he’s returned to serve as a jury member, bringing with him his…
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Transilvania 2016: Free in Deed review
★★★★☆ Loosely based on real-life reports of a pastor in Tennessee who was convicted of child abuse after an attempted exorcism on an eight-year-old boy, Jake Mahaffy’s Free in Deed is a chilling study of unwavering faith in the face of mounting adversity. Free in Deed takes the viewer deep into the world of store-front…
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Film Review: Iona
★★☆☆☆ Scottish director Scott Graham follows up his impressive, underseen debut Shell with Iona, a similarly sombre tale of isolation and familial relations. A film inspired as much by the dark sophistication of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Ordet as the spiritual clash of cultures in Peter Weir’s Witness, Graham’s rural study of guilt, faith and redemption…
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Film Review: 10 Cloverfield Lane
★★★☆☆ Holding a mirror to the concerns of contemporary society is a staple of the monster movie. So when Matt Reeves’ Cloverfield arrived on US screens in 2008 it was clear a new breed of monster had emerged to embody the anxieties evoked by the surprise attacks of 9/11. 10 Cloverfield Lane, by debutant director…
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Berlin 2016: Ta’ang review
★★★★☆ When history is violently forced from its intended path by the outbreak of war, it’s society’s poorest and neglected who suffer most. Ta’ang, the latest film from documentarian Wang Bing, focuses on the lives of the numerous refugees living on the border between Myanmar and China. The Ta’ang (also known as the Palaung) are…
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Berlin 2016 Le Fils de Joseph review
★★★★★ Eugène Green’s first feature produced with the Dardenne brothers, Le Fils de Joseph could easily be interpreted as a contemporary riff on The Nativity. Divided into five parts, each relating to a passage in The Bible, Le Fils de Joseph follows Vincent (Victor Ezenfis), a young boy who’s been lovingly raised by his single…
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Berlin 2016: The Commune review
★★☆☆☆ The first person invited to live at the Copenhagen collective of Thomas Vinterberg’s The Commune is Ole (Lars Ranthe), a gregarious fortysomething with an unpredictable temper. He arrives carrying two plastic bags, one for his clothes, the other filled with leftist literature. A 1970s period drama grappling with the unsustainability of utopian living in…
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Berlin 2016: Maggie’s Plan review
★★☆☆☆ Rebecca Miller’s largely disposable Maggie’s Plan ensnares Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke and Julianne Moore in an unconventional love triangle. Gerwig plays the eponymous Maggie, a thirtysomething singleton working as a business developer for the arts and design world. Whilst speaking with her old friend Tony (Bill Hader), whilst walking his child, she complains about…