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Venice 2018: The Mountain review
★★★☆☆ A troubled young man goes on tour with a renowned lobotomist in Rick Alverson’s wintry new work The Mountain, showing in competition at the 75th edition of the Venice International Film Festival. Andy (Tye Sheridan) lives with his father (Udo Kier) and works at the ice rink where his father teaches figure skating. He dreams…
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Film Review: Cold War
★★★★☆ There is a ruined church that appears twice in Paweł Pawlikowski’s Cold War: once at the beginning and once at the end, which serves as an authentic counterpoint to the fake heritage the new communist government is trying to create. Lacking a roof and strewn with rubble, it nonetheless feels far more solid than the…
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Film Review: The Happytime Murders
★★★☆☆ Marking the film debut of Henson Alternative, a banner of The Jim Henson Company that specialises in adult content, The Happytime Murders is a puppet-based black comedy which definitely isn’t for kids. Based in a world where puppets and humans co-exist, the plot centres on puppet ex-detective-now-private-investigator Phil Phillips (Bill Barretta) trying to solve…
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Film Review: Distant Voices, Still Lives
★★★★☆ Filmed in two separate parts by Terence Davies, Distant Voices, Still Lives explores his childhood and early adulthood in the Liverpool of the 1940s and 1950s through the characters of Tony (Dean Williams), his authoritarian father Tommy (Pete Postlethwaite), loving mother (Freda Dowie) and lively sisters Eileen (Angela Walsh) and Maisie (Lorraine Ashbourne). Told…
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Venice 2018: Our picks of the festival
This Wednesday (29 August) will see the official opening of the 75th Venice Film Festival. The programme is crammed with internationally renowned directors and stars, boasting its most promising selection in years. Here are just a few of the most eagerly anticipated works on offer. First Man Damien Chazelle’s follow up to La La Land…
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Do horror remakes live up to expectations?
If you like horror films, then you will have seen a lot of remakes, unless you’re one of those people who have a rule never to watch a remake – and those people are very strange. There is no doubt that for some people, no remake is ever justified. Each piece of cinema history, particularly…
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Film Review: BlacKkKlansman
★★★★★ In amongst Donald Trump’s latest scandal for allegedly paying hush money during his presidential election campaign to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic film actor, and Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, one cannot help but picture Spike Lee sat rather smug knowing he has called out the president’s true nature in BlacKkKlansman. That smugness is…
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Film Review: The Children Act
★★★★☆ Ian McEwan’s poignant screen adaptation of his 2014 novel, The Children Act, directed by Richard Eyre, stars Emma Thompson in a career-best performance as a level-headed high court judge facing a crisis in her personal and professional life. Fiona Maye decides the legal fate of children and early on we are offered a montage…
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DVD Review: The King
★★★★☆ Oscar-nominated director Eugene Jarecki’s fascinating new film The King charts the rise and fall of Elvis Aaron Presley, and links it to both the historical development of America and the rise of Donald Trump. Midway through The King things begin to break down. Literally. Elvis’ 1963 Rolls-Royce – which Jarecki has been using to…
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DVD Review: Jackie Chan’s Police Story & Police Story 2
★★★★☆ The film that made Jackie Chan an international star, Police Story fully embodies the martial artist’s spirit of entertainment – equal parts endearing, goofy and packed with eye-popping kung fu action. Bundled with its first sequel, Eureka’s new package includes a surfeit of extras, including alternate versions, and archival material. Both films centre on the actions of…
VENICE 2026
