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Blu-ray Review: ‘Memento’
★★★★★ Since its release 12 years ago, British director Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000) has continued to intrigue and delight viewers. A film which propelled Nolan into the Hollywood limelight and got the masses talking, it’s of no wonder that when taking into account its unique and perplexing narrative, ingenious directorial craft and imaginative editing, audiences…
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DVD Releases: ‘The Brothers Bloom’
In his first feature movie Brick (2005), writer-director Rian Johnson created a self-contained world of noir double-crosses, femme-fatales and hardboiled dialogue, and set it all in the microcosm of a Californian high school. For The Brothers Bloom, his second film, Johnson takes the same interest in the intricacies of language and story-telling, and takes it…
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DVD Releases: ‘The Disappearance of Alice Creed’
J. Blakeson impresses with his debut feature as both director and writer with The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009). A kidnapping story filled with imaginative psychological twists, the film follows a hostage taking from a fresh perspective. When ex-cons Vic (Eddie Marsan) and Danny (Martin Compston) furnish a small flat for the kidnapping of Alice…
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DVD Releases: ‘My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?’
Already on very limited release in UK cinemas and released on DVD on 27th September (coinciding with the release of Bad Lieutenant – Port of Call: New Orleans [2009]) is Werner Herzog’s My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? (2009), his latest feature film, which has gained notoriety for Herzog’s collaboration with producer David…
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Special Feature: Interactive cinema – the new frontier
Two days after their storming headline set at this year’s Reading Festival, Canadian rock troupe Arcade Fire released a short, interactive online video for their track We Used to Wait, taken from their acclaimed third album, The Suburbs. Directed by Chris Milk, whose previous collaborations have included musical behemoths U2, Kanye West and the late,…
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Theatrical Releases: ‘Bella’
Jose (Eduardo Verastegui), a rising soccer superstar has a dazzling career ahead of him until a fatal accident dramatically alters the course of his life. He shifts down a gear, grows a bushy beard and takes work as a chef in his brother Manny’s (Manuel Perez) New York restaurant. Here he meets Nina (Tammy Blanchard),…
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Film Review: ‘Enter the Void’
★★★★★ The proclaimed enfant terrible of new French Cinema, Gaspar Noé, returned to screens this month with Enter the Void (2010), the controversial director’s first feature length release since the hugely disturbing, nightmarish Irréversible (2002). The latter film is undoubtedly best remembered – or more likely revered – for two unflinching scenes of extreme graphic violence, rather than its inventive use…
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Special Feature: The Top 10 East Asian films from the last 10 years
From Akira Kurosawa to John Woo, East Asia has always produced some of the most interesting, exciting, and different films in world cinema. Recent years have seen film industries of countries such as Thailand and South Korea start to rival the old guard of China and Japan, making the region more exciting than ever. To…
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Film Review: ‘City of Life and Death’
★★★★☆ City of Life and Death (2009) tells the story of the war atrocities of Nanjing China 1937, when the Japanese Imperial Army invaded the former Chinese capital, committing mass murders, ritual rapes and horryfying torture of the citizens. This is not a typical war story, or at least, not one that is told in…
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Blu-ray Review: ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’
★★★☆☆ Released 26 years ago, Wes Craven’s 1984 slasher A Nightmare on Elm Street will forever be remembered for introducing the charismatic villain Freddy Krueger into pop culture – yet A Nightmare on Elm Street isn’t principally about Freddy. The film centres on a group of hormonally-charged high school students (among them a very young…
EIFF 2026
