DVD Review: ‘The Sacrament’
★★★★☆ Ti West is undoubtedly one of the most exciting directors of the American horror new wave. He works intuitively, re-thinking the rules of...
★★☆☆☆ “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.
★★★★☆ Ti West is undoubtedly one of the most exciting directors of the American horror new wave. He works intuitively, re-thinking the rules of...
★★☆☆☆ Adèle Exarchopoulos’ return to Cannes following Blue Is the Warmest Colour’s Palme d’Or win might be the headline from Marianne Tardieu’s French thriller...
★★★★☆ A well-publicised spat involving its two lead actresses and their director may have taken some of the sheen off a remarkable Palme d’Or...
The celebration of the female director has become paramount to film festivals globally. This years, The Japan Foundation dedicated their annual touring film program to...
Terracotta Film Festival organiser and owner of UK specialist label Terracotta Distribution Joey Leung kindly agreed to an interview with the founder of CUEAFS...
★★★★☆ A huge critical success upon its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, winning the Special Jury Prize for lead actors Peter...
★★★★☆ From the creative mind of Peter Strickland, the director behind 2009’s hugely promising Katlin Varga, comes the long-awaited Berberian Sound Studio (2012). Starring...
★★★★☆ Providing a new twist to a sub-genre as stale and fetid as that of the zombie movie is no mean feat, so great...