Reviews
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DVD Review: ‘Spy’
★★★☆☆ Despite its attempt to subvert the spy genre via the antics of Melissa McCarthy set against a panoply of glamorous international backdrops, Spy (2015) has more in common with Mean Girls than Austin Powers. The film confuses misplaced female empowerment with luxury consumerism and pettily competitive camaraderie, further distracted by gross body humour and…
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DVD Review: ‘Song of the Sea’
★★★★☆ When The Lego Movie (2014) was surprisingly overlooked at the Academy Awards earlier in the year, one of the theories posited for its shock exclusion was to do with technique. If the animators involved in shortlisting were showing preference for more old-fashioned, unique, and hand-crafted creations then it is very clear to see why…
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DVD Review: ‘Palio’
★★★★☆ Cosima Spender’s fascinating documentary Palio (2015), released on DVD this week, is about the oldest horse race in the world, whose origins date from medieval times. The Palio is a ruthless bareback race around the Piazza del Campo, Siena’s main square. There are two a year, held in July and August and each race…
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DVD Review: ‘The Immortal Story’
★★★★☆ Made for French television in 1968, Orson Welles’ The Immortal Story is a beguiling and hypnotic meditation, on art and artifice, and the trickery and magic of storytelling. Adapted from a short story by Danish writer Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), it tells the tale of an elderly and wealthy merchant Mr. Clay (Welles), who…
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Blu-ray Review: ‘The Goonies’
★★★★☆ “Goonies never say die”, the now immortal rallying cry by young adventurer Mickey (Sean Astin) to his band of fellow teen treasure hunters can’t help but echo the enduring appeal of this film. Thanks to endless Sunday afternoon television repeats and frequent appearances in pop culture, The Goonies (1985) has become something of a…
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DVD Review: ‘Best of Enemies’
★★★☆☆ The 1968 television debates between William F Buckley Jr and Gore Vidal, which accompanied that year’s Republican and Democratic conventions, had an impact on political commentary that is still evident today. New documentary Best of Enemies (2015) seeks to unpick that legacy bringing together a wealth of archival footage, including of the broadcasts themselves,…
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CPH:DOX: ‘The Visit’ review
★★★★☆ “Our scenario begins with the arrival. Your arrival. Welcome to our planet.” These words form the basis of Michael Madsen’s The Visit (2015); a tantalising reminder that humanity continues to send signals out into space and await a reply. For a film built completely on the discussion of hypothetical situations, this documentary is impressive…
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CPH:DOX: ‘This Changes Everything’
★★☆☆☆ In Al Gore’s 2006 sobering documentary An Inconvenient Truth the man who “used to be the next President of the United States” relied heavily on charts, infographics and statistics to shock viewers into a collective sense of responsibility when tackling global warming. In the wake of her best-selling book of the same name, Naomi…
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CPH:DOX: ‘Je Suis Charlie’ review
★★★☆☆ A cursory Google search for ‘Charlie Hebdo’ reveals that the satirical magazine continues to fly dangerously close to the sun. Less than a week since the Sinai plane crash, a cartoon equating debris falling from the wrecked fuselage with the continuation of Russia’s bombing of ISIS has sparked a predictably vehement backlash. The controversial,…
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Film Review: ‘Kill Your Friends’
★★☆☆☆ Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) came under heavy fire from some quarters for not being strident enough in its disavowal of the behaviour of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort. There’s a very fine line between portraying outrageous behaviour and skewed morality in the hopes of highlighting its grotesquerie, and relenting to its…