For some, myself included, there's a palpable sense of anticipation whenever a new Paul Thomas Anderson film lands, especially in recent years as the austerity of There Will Be Blood and The Master have rushed him to the top of the stack of America's brightest, most lauded directors. Inherent Vice seems likely to appease as many of … Continue reading Review: Inherent Vice
Year: 1963 Director: Luchino Visconti Stars: Burt Lancaster (Prince Don Fabrizio Salina), Claudia Cardinale (Angelica Sedara / Bertiana), Alain Delon (Tancredi Falconeri), Paolo Stoppa (Don Calogero Sedara), Rina Morelli (Princess Maria Stella Salina), Lucilla Morlacchi (Concetta) Genre: Literary Adaptation / Drama The Leopard: A dilettante's dissection. Some admissions upfront. 1) I've not finished Giuseppe Tomasi di … Continue reading Why I Love… #74: The Leopard
The 'teen' film - be it in the guise of romance, comedy, horror, coming-of-age drama or a combination of all of these and more - is one of those anomalies in the cinematic canon; often openly beloved by audiences, they rarely if ever receive much backing from the critics. The ones that do tend to … Continue reading Review: Beyond Clueless
An inspiration tale of a young woman who embarks on a long, perilous journey on foot, ushering in a new phase in her life and proving countless doubters wrong, featuring a strong, fearless central performance... Mia Wasikowska earned some modest praise for Tracks around the middle of last year. Playing true-life trekker Robyn Davidson, Wasikowska led camels … Continue reading Review: Wild
Arriving with comparatively little fanfare in an admittedly busy season, Alex Garland's directorial debut Ex Machina is a sci-fi anomaly among the prestigious contenders for your attention this January. A novelist who, since the turn of the century has focused more of his energies on screenplay duties, this is his debut behind the camera and it's an assured … Continue reading Review: Ex Machina
Consider this list of words. Hustle. Beauty. Mary. Pie. Wedding. Reunion. Splendor. Psycho. Gangster. Gigolo. President. Muscle. Yakuza. Buffalo. Samurai. Gothic. Gun. Dreamz. Virgin. Loser. Ninja. Outlaws. Werewolf In London. Werewolf In Paris. History X. And now Sniper. Before we get into the meat of this film, can I make a humble request that studios … Continue reading Review: American Sniper
Extremism and hyperbole in film criticism are not often good traits, and will tend to get you dismissed as yet another loon trolling message boards shouting for attention. Moderation and fairness are better. Just a few days ago I posted a scathing review of Foxcatcher, giving it the joint-lowest score I've ever handed out (putting it … Continue reading Review: Whiplash
In the Coen Brothers' 1991 feature Barton Fink the eponymous playwrite suffers an agonising stretch of writer's block when he's commissioned to pen a wrestling picture for a Hollywood studio. The joke within the movie is that the wrestling picture sub-genre has never really existed, though the Coens have fun inventing its imagined tropes as poor Barton … Continue reading Review: Foxcatcher
I wasn't going to review this, but I've spent the last month finding that Nekromantik is haunting me. I'll be in the middle of doing something and I'll realise I'm distracted. Abstract thought will have brought me back to some aspect of this extraordinary film, or the truly wonderful 'Ménage a trois' theme by John Boy Walton … Continue reading Review: Nekromantik (1988)
Year: 2005 Director: Miranda July Stars: John Hawkes (Richard Swersey), Miranda July (Christine Jesperson). Genre: Comedy Nominated by: Hattie English To begin with Me And You And Everyone We Know feels - as Morgan Freeman's Vitruvius would say in The Lego Movie - like a cat poster. Bright, motivational, slapped with a perfunctory slogan and seemingly expectant … Continue reading Reservations #2: Me And You And Everyone We Know
You can tell it's January. You step out in the morning and you can see your breath. When the sun starts setting on a clear afternoon the light is almost blinding. And the British prestige pictures are stepping out ready for BAFTA season. In fairness, they've been slowly trotting out for a couple of months … Continue reading Review: The Theory Of Everything
Like that bit in Akira where the long-frozen pod cracks and Tetsuo gets to discover the truth about the government's secret project, Denis Villeneuve's Enemy finally gets a UK cinema release - two years after production and 11 months after it's US run. Whether it was shelved due to thematic similarities to Richard Aoyade's The Double or whether … Continue reading Review: Enemy
