★☆☆☆☆ In her directorial debut Romantic Comedy, British musician and actor Elizabeth Sankey examines the history of one of cinema’s greatest and most enduring genres. Sadly, a love of romantic comedies and a sharp approach to editing are not enough to buoy up this hopelessly shallow documentary. Opening on a Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ Camino Skies tracks six pilgrims from New Zealand and Australia as they embark on the historic five hundred mile pilgrimage that winds across Spain to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. The gruelling pilgrimage – known in English as the Way of St. James – across the Continue Reading
★★★★★ When Pablo Larraín took the helm of Jackie, it was the first time the Chilean director had attempted two things: a story set outside of Latin America and one with a female protagonist. With Ema, Larraín is back in his home country, weaving a tightly-controlled narrative of family and Continue Reading
★★★★☆ At an age when, for most, a trip to the bathroom would count as the most strenuous task of the day, ex-pat champion of authentic Mexican cuisine Diana Kennedy is still excitedly on the hunt for that most elusive and unforgettable of tamales recipes. Something of a national treasure Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Australian director Kitty Green’s fourth feature may be her first fiction film – after documentaries Casting JonBenet, Ukraine is Not A Brothel and The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul – but it is undoubtedly rooted in reality. Quietly raging, The Assistant is a bleakly precise study of complicity in workplace abuse. Movie producer Continue Reading
Classic card games never go unnoticed in cinema. They’re a perfect catalyst for creating pivotal plot points and as film fans, we know to pay attention whenever there’s a deck in hand. But, just how do writers and directors turn a simple card game into a scene-setting scenario? What’s really Continue Reading
★★★★☆ In the grip of apartheid and the long-running border war with Namibia (then South West Africa), the South African regime forces all white boys over the age of 16 to perform national service. South African writer-director Oliver Hermanus adapts André Carl van der Merwe’s novel about a closeted gay Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Richard Dreyfuss stars in Astronaut, Shelagh McLeod feature film debut, in which she also doubles up as screenwriter. It’s a low-key affair that made its World Premiere at last year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival. In many ways, it has the look and feel of a TV drama, which is Continue Reading
For over a century, Hollywood has seen itself as the king of entertainment, riding out challenges from both television and home video. However, after years of waiting in the wings, the gaming industry is now starting to blur the lines between cinema and video games. Tentpole releases now have budgets Continue Reading
★★★★☆ The reverberations of loss in a small town awaken the spirits of the recently deceased in Denis Côté’s chilling adaptation of Laurence Olivier’s Répertoire des villes disparues. Occupying a peculiar space between life and death, arthouse and genre, Ghost Town Anthology isn’t a horror story exactly, but a portrait Continue Reading
Writing and cinematography have a lot in common. At the end of the day, they both have the same objective, and that is to tell a story. Essays on books have always been a staple in most educational institutes. However, with time, teachers slowly realise the potential of films to Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ New York hip hop antagonists Beastie Boys are a group who have often defied the very notion of pigeon-holing, blending elements of rap, punk and a myriad of samples into their own unique sound. So it feels somewhat fitting that any documentary on the trio should do the same. Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Matvey (Alexksandr Kuznetsov) waits at the front door of his girlfriend’s father’s apartment, priming himself for the bloody task ahead of him. Priming himself, he utters the mantra, “evil won’t touch me”. It may not touch him, but over the next 100 minutes of this hyper-violent comic thriller, it Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ Ours is the age of the poisonous neologism. Never have so many words been spawned to express disdain and hatred, like a speckled fungus crawling up a shower curtain: ‘incel’, ‘snowflake’, ‘libtard’, ‘feminazi’, and our very own ‘Brexit’. ‘Cuck’ has two uses: one in politics, where it denigrates liberals, Continue Reading
Once the Oscar season is here, there is always a level of excitement that comes up. You will start seeing the old classics on your TV in preparation for the new ones to win the awards, and the best films are always in the cinemas around that time, making everybody Continue Reading
