Director: Dea Kulumbegashvili Stars: Ia Sukhitashvili, Kakha Kintsurashvili, Saba Gogichaishvil A communal space - a place of worship - lies empty. Gradually it fills with people and then, mid-sermon, it is dramatically emptied again, as Molotovs are thrown inside. The place burns and it descends into chaos. All of this happens without a cut and … Continue reading Review: Beginning
Directors: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead Stars: Anthony Mackie, Jamie Dornan, Ally Ioannides No one could accuse Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead of lacking ambition. Over the course of their low-budget features Resolution, Spring and The Endless, the idiosyncratic creative duo have navigated time loops, metaphysical horror monsters, cultists, the mandates of storytelling itself and inter-species romance (of a … Continue reading Review: Synchronic
Director: Gavin Rothery Stars: Stacy Martin, Theo James, Rhona Mitra For Gavin Rothery, the future is monochrome. His debut feature - a reasonably scaled sci-fi piece reminiscent of opening salvos from the likes of Duncan Jones and Alex Garland - takes place seventeen years from now. At a remote Japanese facility owned by a corporation … Continue reading Review: Archive
Director: Aude Léa Rapin Stars: Adèle Haenel, Jonathan Couziníe, Antonia Buresi There are multiple ghosts haunting Aude Léa Rapin's narrative feature debut which, on the heels of a mixed reception at Cannes in 2019, has belatedly surfaced on MUBI in the UK. A quixotic mockumentary of sorts, Heroes Don't Die begins with Joachim (Jonathan Couziníe) … Continue reading Review: Heroes Don’t Die
Year: 1995 Director: Hirokazu Kore-Eda Stars: Makiko Esumi, Takashi Naitô, Tadanobu Asano Maborosi - Hirokazu Kore-Eda's narrative debut following a series of documentaries - might take the prize for the most dour film in this series. In some respects. The colour palette and thematic meat are both grim and mournful. It takes place beneath permanently … Continue reading Why I Love… #126: Maborosi
Director: Gabriel Range Stars: Johnny Flynn, Jena Malone, Marc Maron Here's a list of things you probably need in order to pull-off a successful music biopic. 1) Since the critic-proof success of Bohemian Rhapsody, one thing you don't need, apparently, is to try. But you should try. Those box office numbers have meant that an often creatively-bankrupt movie subgenre … Continue reading Review: Stardust
Director: Regina King Stars: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Leslie Odom, Jr. Regina King's star has only been in ascendance of late. From sterling work in TV shows such as The Leftovers and Watchmen, through to a Best Supporting Actress win for her part in Barry Jenkins' damned-near-perfect If Beale Street Could Talk. Now she's making headlines for … Continue reading Review: One Night in Miami…
Director: Spike Lee Stars: David Byrne, Tendayi Kuumba, Chris Giamo In the second half of the 1983 'Stop Making Sense' tour, Talking Heads frontman David Byrne would disappear off-stage briefly only to re-emerge in an over-sized suit. The famous 'big suit' and its associated moves were a mockery of a certain Wall Street mentality that … Continue reading Review: David Byrne’s American Utopia
Director: Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese Stars: Mary Twala, Jerry Mofokeng, Makhaola Ndebele Lesotho sits in the midst of South Africa; a landlocked island on a continent whose cinema seldom makes it to our shores. A vast area of filmmaking effectively silenced by poor distribution and widespread apathy to what it has to say. This makes any … Continue reading Review: This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection
Year: 1967 Director: Jean-Luc Godard Stars: Anne Wiazemsky, Juliet Berto, Jean-Pierre Léaud By 1967 Jean-Luc Godard was operating at his most creative and prolific. The decade saw him repeatedly (and justly) celebrated as a powerhouse of the French New Wave. In '67 he would release three new features. 2 or 3 Things I Knew About … Continue reading Why I Love…. #125: La Chinoise
Director: Kornél MundruczóStars: Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf, Iliza Shlesinger It's so difficult, sometimes, to separate the artist from the art. Recent revelations about Shia LaBeouf's despicable behaviour toward FKAtwigs has put an immediate pall over his work. I love American Honey but I feel conflicted about revisiting it. I've added The Peanut Butter Falcon to … Continue reading Review: Pieces of a Woman
Year: 2012 Director: Paul WS Anderson Stars: Milla Jovovich, Li Bingbing, Sienna Guillory Okay, stick with me on this. Paul WS Anderson - a largely derided or simply dismissed director - is a man preoccupied. His career can be looked at like someone obsessively playing a video game over and over. His first feature, Mortal Kombat, … Continue reading Why I Love… #124: Resident Evil: Retribution
Year: 1970 Director: King Hu Stars: Shi Jun, Xu Feng, Bai Ying Journeying back and forth along the timeline of cinema you can end up with some surprising contrasts. The last film to feature in this series was Tsai Ming-liang's Goodbye, Dragon Inn; as perfect an example of modern 'slow cinema' as one could identify. … Continue reading Why I Love… #123: A Touch of Zen
It's easy to feel crushingly demotivated as 2021 begins, especially here in the UK, where COVID cases are at an all-time high, most of us are in a kind of faulty lockdown and the actualisation of Brexit feels like the beginning of a years-long winter, Westeros-style. Happy New Year indeed. To try and reignite a … Continue reading Minutiae: The Beginning of Post Tenebras Lux
