-
IndieLisboa 2018: The Wild Boys review
★★★★☆ The debut feature from provocative French filmmaker Bertrand Mandico is a film of unadulterated artifice. An exhilarating and highly surreal tale of gender-warfare, The Wild Boys is a maximalist work of paperback eroticism that almost defies categorisation; a film that marries cinematic heritage with progressive ideas to create a genre and gender-bending work of…
-
IndieLisboa 2018: DRVO (A Árvore) review
★★★★☆ An old man and a young boy meet by a dying tree. They’ve both taken different paths to get here, but somehow they share the same memories. A deeply affecting vision of the lost paradise of childhood, André Gil Mata’s DRVO is a hypnotic trawling of individual suffering against the backdrop of a war-torn…
-
Film Review: Avengers: Infinity War
★★★★☆ Ten years, nineteen films and the most audacious experiment in franchise filmmaking ever: the conclusion to Marvel’s grand project has finally arrived. The biggest entry in the studio’s series to date, Avengers: Infinity War is at once exhausting, exhilarating and triumphant. Thanos is coming. Ever since the Mad Titan (Josh Brolin) was teased at…
-
Film Review: Beast
★★★★☆ Loosely based on the ‘Beast of Jersey’ serial killer who terrorised island residents in the 1960s, writer-director Michael Pearce’s feature debut is an ambitious, deliciously dark psychodrama. Bolstered by two star performances, Beast is equal parts modern gothic fairytale and crime thriller. Following an eerie prologue with Moll (Jessie Buckley) singing in a church…
-
Criterion Review: The Awful Truth
★★★☆☆ Cary Grant will forever be one of Hollywood’s brightest stars. But icons rarely come fully formed, and Leo McCarey’s 1937 film was where Grant’s persona finally coalesced after a string of so-so supporting roles. The latest addition to the Criterion Collection, The Awful Truth is the first of Grant’s classic screwball comedies. Jerry Wariner (Grant)…
-
DVD Review: Cure
★★★★★ A series of brutal killings, happening seemingly at random and by multiple killers, are connected by strange ‘X’ shapes carved into the victims’ chests. The perpetrators are apparently unmotivated and cannot account for their actions. When detective Takabe (Kōji Yakusho) is called to investigate, all signs point to an unseen spectre directing the murders.…
-
Animated family films still to come in 2018
Years are just twelve months during which excellent, and some not that awesome, movies are released. Every film fan greets each new year with a long list of titles that are expected to hit the theatres in the months to come, hopeful to see them all. Sometimes we are into romantic comedies that make us…
-
Celebrating the strangeness of John Waters
In a sea of incredibly strange films, there are thousands upon thousands of moving pictures that have made the world a better place through their storylines. Thanks to the internet we now have the opportunity to find about absolutely everything that pops in our minds. By living in an era of social justice, memes, cryptocurrency…
-
Why costumes and make-up are still so important to horror films
It’s hard to believe people found horror movies scary in the past. If Frankenstein’s monster or Count Dracula graced the screen today, young kids wouldn’t even flinch. Adults would walk out of the theater. Ghosts were even worse because they stuck actors underneath white sheets. You could buy Halloween costumes that people would find more…
-
DVD Review: Early Hou Hsiao-Hsien: Three Films 1980-1983
★★★★☆ One of the most important filmmakers in Taiwan, Hou Hsiao-Hsien was once lauded as “one of the three directors most crucial to the future of cinema”. This new Masters of Cinema set from Eureka incorporates three of Hou’s early films: Cute Girl, The Green, Green Grass of Home and The Boys from Fengkuei. Newcomers to…
VENICE 2026