Reviews
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Theatrical Releases: ‘Bella’
Jose (Eduardo Verastegui), a rising soccer superstar has a dazzling career ahead of him until a fatal accident dramatically alters the course of his life. He shifts down a gear, grows a bushy beard and takes work as a chef in his brother Manny’s (Manuel Perez) New York restaurant. Here he meets Nina (Tammy Blanchard),…
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Film Review: ‘Enter the Void’
★★★★★ The proclaimed enfant terrible of new French Cinema, Gaspar Noé, returned to screens this month with Enter the Void (2010), the controversial director’s first feature length release since the hugely disturbing, nightmarish Irréversible (2002). The latter film is undoubtedly best remembered – or more likely revered – for two unflinching scenes of extreme graphic violence, rather than its inventive use…
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Film Review: ‘City of Life and Death’
★★★★☆ City of Life and Death (2009) tells the story of the war atrocities of Nanjing China 1937, when the Japanese Imperial Army invaded the former Chinese capital, committing mass murders, ritual rapes and horryfying torture of the citizens. This is not a typical war story, or at least, not one that is told in…
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Blu-ray Review: ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’
★★★☆☆ Released 26 years ago, Wes Craven’s 1984 slasher A Nightmare on Elm Street will forever be remembered for introducing the charismatic villain Freddy Krueger into pop culture – yet A Nightmare on Elm Street isn’t principally about Freddy. The film centres on a group of hormonally-charged high school students (among them a very young…
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DVD Review: ‘Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans’
★★★★☆ Werner Herzog has made some weird films in his time. Some weird in a good way, some weird in a bad way, some just plain weird. But the near-psychotic German is never afraid of a challenge, even if it involves dragging a steamboat all the way over a hill. With Bad Lieutenant: Port of…
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Film Review: Frozen
★★★☆☆ Adam Green wants to be Steven Spielberg. Within the press notes that accompanied the preview screening of his latest feature, Frozen (2010), Green very overtly expresses his undying love for the legendary director. In addition, the film itself is peppered with references to Spielberg classics ET (1982) and Jaws (1975) and it is the horror and tension of…
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DVD Review: I Spit on Your Grave
★★★★☆ The original I Spit on Your Grave has continued to arouse passionate and polarised responses from audiences since its release in 1978. Banned in nearly every country at some stage and with numerous versions still censored today, it may come as a surprise to many that it’s being released once again as a Collector’s Edition.…
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DVD Review: ‘Mother’
★★★★☆ Revered director Bong Joon-ho is one of a number of South Korean directors that have (rightly) garnered recognition for his cinematic work in the West. His latest film Mother (2009), is a wonderful achievement which deserves just as much praise as his monster hit The Host (2006), and once again utilizes scenes of both graphic violence and…
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DVD Releases: ‘Trash Humpers’
The first thought that will undoubted spring to your mind when you begin watching US indie director Harmony Korine’s latest oddity Trash Humpers (2009) is,”OK, this is weird”. The more you watch though, the more you realise that “weird” is an absolute understatement. With not much of an introduction, we see a bizarre group of figures – apparently…
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DVD Review: ‘Robin Hood’
★★☆☆☆ Has there been a better time in recent memory to return to the age-old English legend of a poor man willing to stand up to a nation’s greedy oppressors? Unfortunately, Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood (2010) manages to miss a ripe opportunity to explore this pertinent element of the famous tale in favour of what is…