Reviews
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Film Review: ‘Kind Hearts and Coronets’
★★★★★ Perhaps the finest of all the Ealing comedies, Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) arrives dusted off and given the polish it rightfully deserves; a 62-year-old film rereleased as a timely reminder of how, given the correct ingredients, black comedies needn’t be bogged down with lewd material to be fun, charming and, most importantly, intelligent.Kind…
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Film Review: ‘Villain’
★★★★★ Sang-il Lee’s Villain (Akunin, 2010) is one of those rare and touching masterpieces of cinema. From beginning to end, this film radiates incredible sadness, creates a whole new world of inexplicable sympathy and compassion, while the villain the title suggests, shifts from one character to the other, continually challenging the perception of good and…
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Film Review: ‘The Guard’
★★★★☆ The Guard (2011), directed by John Michael McDonagh (brother of In Bruges [2008] director Martin McDonagh), is an outrageously hilarious and inappropriate comedy that allows the ever under-rated Brendan Gleeson to shine opposite a wonderfully deadpan Don Cheadle, with a supporting cast of other talent including Mark Strong and Liam Cullingham.Gleeson plays Sergeant Gerry…
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DVD Review: ‘Camp Victory, Afghanistan’
★★★☆☆ Camp Victory, Afghanistan (2010) focuses on one training camp in Afghanistan, the titular base where recruits of the Afghan National Army are being trained by members of the US National Guard into becoming soldiers. The Americans have an unenviable task on their hands; the men they train are plagued by disobedience, misbehaviour and even…
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DVD Review: ‘Source Code’
★★★★☆ Director Duncan Jones (formerly Zowie Bowie) follows up the highly acclaimed Moon (2009) with Source Code (2011), a short but exceedingly sweet slice of good old fashioned sci-fi. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Captain Colter Stevens, a soldier who wakes up to find himself on a speeding Chicago-bound commuter train opposite mystery woman Christina (Michelle Monaghan).Dazed…
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Film Review: ‘The Taqwacores’
★★☆☆☆ The Taqwacores (2010), adapted from the cult novel by Michael Muhammad Knight and directed by Eyad Zahra, is a quirky Indie film about young American Muslims determined to rebel against convention.Set in Buffalo, New York, Yusef (Bobby Naderi), a shy engineering student from Pakistan, moves off campus into a shared student house. Little does…
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Film Review: ‘The Smurfs’
★★☆☆☆ After toying with the idea for some time, Hollywood has finally taken the plunge, bringing everybody’s childhood favourite cartoon characters the Smurfs to the big screen. Directed by Raja Gosnell and starring Hank Azaria, Sofia Vergara, Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays and Katie Perry (as the voice of Smurfette), The Smurfs (2011) takes us…
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Film Review: ‘Elite Squad: The Enemy Within’
★★★★☆ Brazilian director Jose Padilha returns with Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (2010) – aka Elite Squad 2 – the sequel to his critically acclaimed Elite Squad (2007) which since its release has been bestowed with numerous awards, including the Golden Berlin Bear Award at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival.Padilha’s sequel continues as a…
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Film Review: ‘The Salt of Life’
★★★☆☆ Mid-August Lunch (Pranzo di ferragosto) caused a quiet stir in 2008 when its writer-director-star Gianni Di Gregorio won the BFI London Film Festival’s Best First Film award at the sprightly age of 59. Funny and understated, it made a modest world cinema star of Di Gregorio, who returns to screens this week with The…
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Film Review: ‘Project Nim’
★★☆☆☆ Imagine you had a brilliant story that you just had to tell. Then you thought about the best way you could make that story cinematic. Then, perhaps in a moment of madness, you decided not to bother with the second part of that thought. You would probably end up with something similar to ape…