Palestinian cinema is relatively young in comparison to Arab cinema as a whole. This is for obvious reasons, but that hasn’t stopped a vibrancy developing over the last twenty years that has wowed both audiences and international film festivals. This […]
★★★★★ There are certain works that define the experience of what cinema is, and because of this they become difficult to create a discourse around. Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is such a film. The idea of […]
★★★★☆ In answer to what he would do to follow 2011’s multi-layered collage The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, Göran Hugo Olsson has settled on the fight against Colonists in Africa by its indigenous people by again raiding the archives of […]
★★★☆☆ After causing a stir on the Croisette where it premiered last year in the Critic’s Week Sidebar You and the Night (2013) is the debut feature from Yann Gonzalez and it is as infuriating as it’s spectacular. With a […]
★★☆☆☆ There has been an influx of documentaries recently that have focused on the so called “Arab Spring”. Some, like Wiam Bedirxan & Ossama Mohammed’s Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait (2014), Jehane Noujaim’s The Square (2013) and Talal Derki’s The Return […]
★★★★☆ Encircling Rome like a tightening lariat that threatens to flood the environs of the Italian capital with ghosts of its past and future, the Grande Raccordo Anulare is the focus of Gianfranco Rosi’s latest documentary. The surprise winner of […]
★★★★★ Certain cinematic experiences pander to repeated sittings. Eventually maturity brings with it enlightenment and the secret passages that spark the conscious through sheer luminosity. Jacques Tati’s observation satire Playtime (1967) is one such événement and one can both envy […]
★★★☆☆ The Case Against 8 (2014) looks at one of the most divisive issues in contemporary American life: that of same sex marriage. Directors Ben Cotner and Ryan White track the five year battle to get California’s Proposition 8 overturned. […]
★★★★★ More American nightmare than American Dream, Jesse Moss’ Sundance award-winning documentary The Overnighters (2013) looks at the crisis at the centre of the economic collapse within the post-Empire confines of contemporary America. Coming at this point through the prism […]
★★★★★ Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) is a talismanic work of art, a piece of cinema that reaches through the ages to comment on present needs, wants and perceived existential threats. Even though it has been remade three times […]
★★★★★ Narrative is the base from which elemental passages are forced upon our gaze. In recent years the very idea of watching narratives unfold over 8-12 hours had been the preserve of formalist cinema and its adherents, whether that be […]
★★☆☆☆ Adapted from James Franco’s novel of the same name – a reflection of the hometown ennui he managed to transcend, Palo Alto (2013) is another creative misfire from the talented multi-hyphenate. Franco’s novel is a series of loosely connected […]
