DVD Review: ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’
★★★★☆ Stephen Chbosky makes his directorial debut with an adaptation of self-penned coming-of-age novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012). Knowing the material...
★★☆☆☆ “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.
★★★★☆ With Luca Guadagnino’s terrific Challengers, the acclaimed director of Call Me By Your Name brings us the sub-genre we never knew we needed: the erotic tennis thriller.
★★☆☆☆ Directors Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s “Abigail” mashes up crime caper and monster movie, but fails to deliver fear or humor. Spoilery trailers and unoriginal characters overshadow promising elements, resulting in a dull, lifeless experience lacking creativity and wit.
★★☆☆☆ Maïwenn’s French period drama Jeanne du Barry is the perfect opening salvo for the 76th Cannes Film Festival. It is as glitzy and gaudy as the festival itself, with its vacuous politics drowned out by the thunderous sound of it slapping its own back.
★★★★☆ Stephen Chbosky makes his directorial debut with an adaptation of self-penned coming-of-age novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012). Knowing the material...
★★★☆☆ Despite finding himself under house arrest and banned from filmmaking for ‘committing propaganda against the Iranian government’, resourceful director Jafar Panahi follows his...
★★★★☆ Shot entirely in black and white, Frances Ha (2012) sees US indie director Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig team up once again after their...
★★☆☆☆ Woody Allen continues his picture postcard Euro trawl with mixed results in To Rome with Love (2012), despite an admittedly gorgeous backdrop photographed...
★★★★☆ One of only a handful of high profile British films featuring at this year’s 63rd Berlinale (more’s the pity), Ken Loach returns to...
★★☆☆☆ Swedish/South African director Pia Marais has garnered a small, yet loyal following on the festival circuit thanks to her assured debut The Unpolished...
★★☆☆☆ Denis Côté’s Vic + Flo Saw a Bear ( Vic et Flo ont vu un ours, 2013) is the follow-up to the experimental...
★★★★☆ BBC Four have been reaping in high viewing figures after their early recognition of Nordic Noir programming, and can now add Borgen to...