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Mission Implausible: far-fetched movie moments
Have you ever wondered if it’s actually possible to survive a nuclear explosion by hiding in a fridge, or to make the jump from a crane into a burning skyscraper? The Mission Implausible interactive guide breaks down some of the most far-fetched scenes from iconic action films, looking at which are feasible and which Die…
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Criterion Review: Sawdust and Tinsel
★★★★☆ 1953’s Sawdust and Tinsel was a financial and critical failure, yet is now considered one of Ingmar Bergman’s early masterpieces. It’s significant for being Bergman’s first collaboration with Sven Nykvist (sharing cinematography duties with Hilding Bladh), but beyond this, there is much to admire and a great deal to love about this imperfect but riveting study…
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Film Review: The Passenger
★★★★☆ A testament to the enduring legacy and reverence of Michelangelo Antonioni, The Passenger returns to UK cinema screens in a new 4K restored format. A somewhat underappreciated yet still important part of his oeuvre, the film’s final dazzling shot embodies all that makes The Passenger such an organic, spiritual and quietly disconcerting work. Marking the end…
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Film Review: One Cut of the Dead
★★★★★ After wowing Japanese audiences with a small theatrical run and a screening at the Udine Film Festival in 2017, Shin’ichirô Ueda’s micro-budget zombie flick has finally arrived in the UK, giving us the best horror comedy since Shaun of the Dead, as well as a joyous, unhinged tribute to independent filmmaking. Opening seemingly in the…
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Film Review: The Favourite
★★★★★ Animals, both literally and figuratively, play a crucial part in Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’ films: three of his last six features feature beasts in their titles. The title of his latest, The Favourite, may break with that trend, but bestial cunning and instinct run riot through this deliciously Machiavellian period drama. In early eighteenth-century…
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The best of 2018: Our films of the year
There can be little doubt that 2018 gave cinephiles one of the most diverse and exciting years of the new millennium. It was a year that produced such rich satires as Sorry to Bother You, BlackKklansman and Make Me Up, and where one of the most beloved films explored the intersectionality of ethnicity, class and memory through…
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Film Review: Mary Poppins Returns
★★★★☆ “Grown ups forget, they always do,” says Emily Blunt as practically perfect Mary Poppins at the beginning of Mary Poppins Returns. While Jane and Michael Banks (Emily Mortimer and Ben Whishaw), now adults facing the repossession of their childhood home in the midst of The Great Slump, may have forgotten to look for magic…
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The best card counting films of all time
Playing casino games is all about winning, isn’t it? There’s the element of fun, of course, but for many of us, it’s the thought of winning huge sums of money that drives us to casinos. With card games, there’s a particular technique that some players use to give themselves an edge. This technique is known…
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Film Review: The Last Movie
★★★☆☆ The Last Movie, the classic “lost” film from Dennis Hopper, is a postmodern muddle containing occasional flashes of brilliance, but those moments alone can’t light-up a dated story which reeks a little too much of creative self-indulgence. As far as directorial debuts go, it doesn’t get much better than Easy Rider: a film which proved…
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DVD Review: Kusama – Infinity
★★★☆☆ Kusama – Infinity delves into the life and work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama tracing her story from a period of early ambition and rebelliousness which took her to the US and saw her surviving in a brutally competitive, sexist and racist art world through her dejected move back to Japan, to eventual end-career…
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