Reviews
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Film Review: ‘A Separation’
★★★★☆ Writer and director Asghar Fahadi’s latest film A Separation (2011) is a testament to what is wonderful about world cinema and approaches a subject universal to all. Whether you are from the East, South, North or West, at some point we are all in a relationship that faces difficulties. A Separation approaches theses difficulties…
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Blu-ray Review: ‘Don’t Look Now’
★★★★☆ Director Nicholas Roeg’s film adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s short story, Don’t Look Now (1973) is recognisable for its use of recurring themes and a Hitchcockian style of editing. The combination of foreboding subject matter and editorial jump-cut’s give the film a continuous sense of jarring and displacement – at no point does it…
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DVD Releases: ‘Henry of Navarre’
Originally shot as a two part mini-series for German television, Jo Baier’s historical romp Henry of Navarre (2010, aka ‘Henri 4‘) arrives on DVD shaved down to a still hefty 148 minutes. An odd choice, not least because the individual episodes clocked in at a manageable two hours, encompassing their own narrative arcs and preoccupations…
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DVD Review: ‘Donor Unknown’
★★★☆☆ Donor Unknown (2010) charts the seemingly unique story of 20-year-old JoEllen Marsh and her burning curiosity to know more about her anonymous donor father. After discovering an online registry which connects donor-conceived children, she manages to track down a half-sister in New York and a further 12 half-siblings from across the United States. Jerry Rothwell’s…
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DVD Review: ‘The Bird with the Crystal Plumage’
★★★★★ “That Italian fellow is starting to make me nervous”, purportedly the words of Alfred Hitchcock upon stumbling out of this taught thriller, released nearly ten years to the day after Psycho (1960) birthed the slasher genre. The ‘Italian fellow’ in question was master-to-be Dario Argento, and the film The Bird with the Crystal Plumage…
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DVD Releases: ‘Patagonia’
Directed by Marc Evans, Patagonia (2010) tells two parallel stories about road journeys, one in Argentina and the other in Wales. The premise seems promising enough and could have resulted in a great movie. Instead it only leads to a vacuously expended hour and half of my life that I won’t get back. But before…
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DVD Review: ‘Ironclad’
★★★☆☆ Swords, knights, castles and a cruel king, what more could a boy ask for? Not much! Ironclad (2011) shows what a talented director can do on a relatively small budget (roughly $25,000,000). It appealed to my boyish obsession with knights riding around on horseback, swinging swords, wreaking havoc, and generally unleashing the dogs of…
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Film Review: ‘The Tree of Life’
★★★★☆ To be honest, this is more of a purge than a review. Since I saw The Tree of Life (2011) in a sweaty London screening room two weeks ago it has infected me with dread . I have attempted to write this article no less than seven times but on every occasion I have been…
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Film Review: ‘Bobby Fischer Against the World’
★★★☆☆ It was only a matter of time before some bright spark revisited the story of eccentric chess legend Bobby Fischer. True life tales of tortured geniuses such as a A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Shine (1996) have always been well received and Bobby’s life is tailor made for the big screen.The young Jewish Savant…
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DVD Releases: ‘Resurrected’
★★★☆☆ It turns out Paul Greengrass’s penchant for telling stories of amnesiacs and the tribulations of war began life long before the Bourne cycle and Green Zone (2010). Released on DVD for the first time, Resurrected (1989), Greengrass’ debut feature film, tells the story of Private Kevin Deakin (David Thewlis), a soldier who goes missing…
