Director: Federico Atehortúa Arteaga Arteaga initially set out to make a documentary about the origins of Colombian cinema; itself a fertile ground for exploration. In the process of doing so, however, he came to realise that the medium's tentative first steps were inherently connected to the country's history of violence and civil unrest; something that … Continue reading Review: Mute Fire
Director: Trey Edward Shults Stars: Taylor Russell, Kelvin Harrison, Jr., Alexa Demie Cast your mind back seven (!) years or so, and some of you might well remember the hard-swerve encountered while watching Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond The Pines, a film which very suddenly revealed itself to be episodic in nature, and whose focal character … Continue reading Review: Waves
Director: Nicolas Pesce Stars: Andrea Riseborough, John Cho, Frankie Faison Life and movies are filled with mysteries. One of the most puzzling movie mysteries of the 21st century is quite how Takashi Shimizu went from making such a thoroughly chilling entry in the prolific Japanese Grudge series (2002's Ju-On) only to find his brand of horror thoroughly … Continue reading Review: The Grudge (2020)
Every year we go and see movies; moving images that move us, that tell stories, that ask us to feel something, invite us into their micro-climates. One of the most significant methods by which this collaborative art forms asks of our attention is through music. A score - and source music - can serve different … Continue reading The 2010s: Music at the Movies
Year: 1995 Director: Spike Lee Stars: Mekhi Phifer, Isaiah Washington, Harvey Keitel Last year Spike Lee's most flammable joint, Do The Right Thing, got itself a re-release and a Criterion Collection special edition. A belated victory lap for one of the most bold and distinctive American films of the 1980s. Do The Right Thing tends to be … Continue reading Why I Love… #110: Clockers
Director: Jay Roach Stars: Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, Charlize Theron We are in the midst of a very slow-moving sea change in how women are treated and depicted in the entertainment industry. I kind of hate that it's only taken me two sentences to get to Harvey Weinstein, but here we are. His name may … Continue reading Review: Bombshell
Looking through the local cinema listings, it is will dismal acceptance that I note that A Hidden Life - the new opus from one of cinema's living legends - is not playing anywhere near me. A privileged woe, granted. Blame poor distribution, a lack of faith from cinema chains, or the happenstance of the first busy release … Continue reading Ranked: Terrence Malick
Director: Robert Eggers Stars: Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe, Valeriia Karaman The thankless, backbreaking toil of the working class; the promise of abundance higher up the economic ladder; entrenched homophobia and repressed homosexuality; the inescapable past; the ruination of alcoholism and its use as a tool to keep men down; the allure of a piscine vagina... … Continue reading Review: The Lighthouse
Directors: Joshua Safdie, Benny Safdie Stars: Adam Sandler, Julia Fox, Lakeith Stanfield Anyone familiar with the cinema of Joshua and Benny Safdie might well feel a sense of dislocation at the opening of their latest, Uncut Gems. The boys have come up and made a name for themselves with a brash, guerrilla-style of filmmaking back and … Continue reading Review: Uncut Gems
Director: Sam Mendes Stars: Dean-Charles Chapman, George MacKay, Andrew Scott Sam Mendes' latest film betrays a conspicuous fascination with the revelatory nature of time. It's there from the concise date-stamped title onward (the title card goes into further specificity, citing events as taking place on April 6th). The well-publicised gimmickry of shooting his Great War … Continue reading Review: 1917
Director: Bi Gan Stars: Huang Jue, Tang Wei, Sylvia Chang In a very specific but entirely fitting sense, Bi Gan's Long Day's Journey Into Night exists outside of time for me. The film was released in China on the last day of 2018. It received its (very limited) UK cinematic release in the last week … Continue reading Review: Long Day’s Journey Into Night
