Film Review: ‘Haywire’
★☆☆☆☆ Where have all the action heroines gone? Outside of the cinema of Luc Besson, there seems to be a distinct absence of strong...
★★☆☆☆ “An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,” Percy Shelley once wrote in his sonnet England in 1819. He was firing his barbs at King George III but the words could just as well be used for any number of English monarchs including Henry VIII.
★★★★★ Turkish master director Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns to the Cannes Croisette with About Dry Grasses, a wonderful wintry meditation on male fragility and the way we often make our own hells and then deceive ourselves that we’re trapped.
★★★★☆ From sub-Saharan Africa to Afghanistan, Syria to Iraq and Iran, the climate crisis, drought, war, and oppression has created a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. It is treated as an ethical conundrum, but it isn’t. Either we wish to save those who are in danger of dying, or all our talk of human rights is just so much hot air. This is the core concern of Green Border.
★☆☆☆☆ Where have all the action heroines gone? Outside of the cinema of Luc Besson, there seems to be a distinct absence of strong...
★★☆☆☆ One of Hammer’s lesser-known historical adventures, The Scarlet Blade (1964) proves, if nothing else, that the studio were far better when they stuck to the...
★☆☆☆☆ The Brigand of Kandahar (1965) – released on DVD for the first time this week – is one of Hammer’s most seldom-seen films. After...
★★★★☆ When his doting fiancee Elizabeth (Penthouse pet Patty Mullen) is torn to pieces in a bizarre lawnmower accident on her father’s birthday, creepy...
★★☆☆☆ Apparently, philanthropy will get you killed. This is the problem facing Largo Winch (Tomer Sisley), the heir to a massive global corporation in...
★★★★☆ Canadian filmmaker Laraysa Kondracki’s extraordinary debut feature The Whistleblower – starring Rachel Weisz, Monica Bellucci, Vanessa Redgrave and Benedict Cumberbatch – focuses on...
★★★★☆ Last month saw the release of the longlist for the forthcoming Best Documentary Oscar at next year’s Academy Awards. Controversy soon followed as...
★★★☆☆ From John Michael McDonagh (brother of In Bruges [2008] director Martin McDonagh) comes Irish black comedy The Guard (2011), starring Brendan Gleeson, Don...