Reviews
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Toronoto 2011: Read Our Full Programme Preview
The Toronto International Film Festival 2011 (TIFF 2011) returns for its 36th year this September with a whole host of highly anticipated world premieres including Alexander Payne’s The Descendants, Bennett Miller’s Moneyball (starring Brad Pitt), Terence Davies’ The Deep Blue Sea and Luc Besson’s The Lady. Tagging along on their North American premiere route will…
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Film Review: ‘The Devil’s Double’
★★☆☆☆ Based upon the autobiographical novel of Latif Yahia, a body double for Saddam Hussein’s son Uday Hussein during the late 1980s, director Lee Tamahori’s latest film The Devil’s Double (2011) stars Dominic Cooper in a double performance as both Latif and Uday, as the horrified lookalike must come to terms with serving under one…
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Film Review: ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’
★★★☆☆ Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) is the second film from director Rupert Wyatt (following 2008’s The Escapist) and joins a long line of origin movies that have become popular over the past several years but thanks to a tight, albeit at times flawed, screenplay, strong script and ultimately outstanding special effects…
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DVD Review: ‘The Witches of Oz’
★★☆☆☆ Produced by Imaginarium and directed by Leigh Scott, The Witches of Oz (2011) is a short TV mini-series which revisits the magical Wizard of Oz world from a modern point of view. With quite a few known names in the cast – such as Christopher Lloyd, Lance Henriksen, Sean Astin and Billy Boyd –…
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DVD Review: ‘The Rig’
★☆☆☆☆ While the DVD cover for The Rig (2010) would lead you to believe this is a giant monster movie in the vein of Sharktopus (2010), you’d be mistaken. The Rig has more in common with The Thing (1982) than it does anything else. So, if I was to sum up this film, I would…
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DVD Review: ‘Lock Up’
★★★☆☆ Best known for his work as cinematographer on Brad Anderson’s The Machinist (2004) and Transsiberian (2008), Lock Up (2010) is a suitably dark and gritty directorial debut from Spanish filmmaker, Xavi Giménez.Centring on the destructive relationship between father, Luis (Adolfo Fernández), and son, Fran (Marcel Borràs), the film plays out like an Orwellian nightmare…
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DVD Review: ‘Lou’
★★★★☆ Lou (2010), directed and written by Belinda Chayko (Bored Olives [2000]) and starring legendary British actor John Hurt, is a tender, heartfelt film about one girl’s rite of passage. Set against the dramatic landscape of rural New South Wales, harried single mum Rhia (Emily Barclay) struggles to bring up her three daughters, hounded by…
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DVD Review: ‘Totally F***ed Up’
★★★☆☆ It would be easy to describe Totally F***ed Up (1993), an early film from New Queer Cinema pioneer Gregg Araki, as a “relationship drama”. The film deals mostly with the highs and lows of romance for a group of young gay friends in LA in the early Nineties: Andy (James Duvall); Tommy (Roko Belic);…
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DVD Review: ‘The Lost Bladesman’
★★★☆☆ An adaptation of Luo Guanzhong’s novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms – which has already inspired a number of cinematic offerings including John Woo’s Red Cliff (2008) – Alan Mak and Felix Chong’s The Lost Bladesman (2011) is a perfectly competent martial arts piece that’s made big waves at the Chinese box office. Despite…
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DVD Review: ‘Meek’s Cutoff’
★★★★☆ I was lucky enough to catch Meek’s Cutoff (2010) at this year’s Bird’s Eye View Festival, the London-based event that celebrates women’s contribution to film. Even though director Kelly Reichardt has played down the feminist aspects of the film, focusing instead on a political angle, this film is an unequivocal historical critique of the…