The top ten Portrait of a Lady on FireNever Rarely Sometimes AlwaysEmaBeanpoleA Hidden LifeLovers RockOverseasDick Johnson is DeadRelicAn Easy Girl Film Of The YearPortrait of a Lady on Fire Céline Sciamma's fourth directorial effort is some kind of masterpiece. The initially diffident, then slow-thawing relationship between painter, Marianne (Noémie Merlant), and subject, Héloïse … Continue reading The Best of 2020
Director: Steve McQueen Stars: Sheyi Cole, Jonathan Jules, Robbie Gee One of the points I wanted to cover (but skipped for the sake of relative brevity) in my review of Red, White and Blue was how important music remained to the storytelling; as vital an element as any in Steve McQueen's milestone Small Axe series. In last … Continue reading Review: Alex Wheatle
Director: Carlo Mirabella-Davis Stars: Haley Bennet, Denis O'Hare, Elizabeth Marvel Around the turn of the last century, a popular 'exhibit' at a touring freakshow would be the 'geek'; a person willing to eat anything at all - living, inanimate - to the delight and revulsion of incredulous spectators. The shock of this disturbing impulse - … Continue reading Review: Swallow
Director: David Fincher Stars: Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Tuppence Middleton Thanks to his episodic endeavours for Netflix - House of Cards but chiefly Mindhunter - it's been six long years since we were gifted A Film by David Fincher. The drought is up with this stylishly monochrome biopic of rummy Hollywood screenwriter Herman 'Mank' Mankiewicz. … Continue reading Review: Mank
Year: 2003 Director: Tsai Ming-Liang Stars: Chen Hsiang-Chyi, Kiyonobu Mitamura, Lee Kang-Sheng Cinema as a medium - and, more pointedly for this piece, as an industry - will return and thrive again. Of this I am particularly optimistic. We love the movies too much. We love the ceremony of going, and all the associated tactile … Continue reading Why I Love… #122: Goodbye, Dragon Inn
Director: Steve McQueen Stars: John Boyega, Steve Toussaint, Antonia Thomas "Is that it?" It's the first thought that clapped into my mind as Steve McQueen cut to black and the credits began, joined by a wave of disappointment and a flutter of longing for greater resolution. It may be your reaction, too. But this sense … Continue reading Review: Red, White and Blue
Director: Hong Khaou Stars: Henry Golding, Molly Harris, Parker Sawyers The past meets the present in Hong Khaou's understated second feature, which has this weekend arrived on BBC iPlayer for easy-access viewing; something I'd actively recommend. This bridging of generations isn't new ground for Khaou, whose previous film, 2017's Lilting, found a grieving Ben Whishaw … Continue reading Review: Monsoon
Director: Clea DuVall Stars: Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Davis, Aubrey Plaza The ratio of good Christmas films to... not? It's not exactly even. What's more, nobody's reasonably expecting any different. Even more-so than the flimsiest of rom-coms, they're the background fodder, the inconsequential ambiance, the backdrop to cosy evenings that are more notably about something else, … Continue reading Review: Happiest Season
Director: Ron Howard Stars: Amy Adams, Gabriel Basso, Glenn Close Ron Howard - purveyor of an almost unbroken record of dismally average movies - here outdoes himself, putting to rest the question of which Dan Brown adaptation amounts to his most feeble offering. Now he veers headlong into a career nadir so ill-timed and poorly considered … Continue reading Review: Hillbilly Elegy
Director: Steve McQueen Stars: Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn, Ellis George, Micheal Ward The second installment in Steve McQueen's Small Axe strand shows a further loosening of the acclaimed director's composure; it's very flex marking it out as one of the most interesting pivots in his career thus far. It may be half the length of Mangrove, but it … Continue reading Review: Lovers Rock
Director: Brandon Cronenberg Stars: Angela Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Tuppence Middleton Living and working in the shadow of David Cronenberg might well be a particularly daunting thing, but son Brandon is gamely stepping up to the task and if the world wasn't won over by his suitably vile debut Antiviral back in 2012, it certainly seems more … Continue reading Review: Possessor
Director: Steve McQueen Stars: Letitia Wright, Shaun Parkes, Malachi Kirby My grandfather was a policeman and lifelong Tory. By the time I knew him as an old man he was defined in my eyes, sadly, as an alcoholic and a racist. So racist that he was even racist in his sleep. I was a child and … Continue reading Review: Mangrove
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa Stars: Atsuko Maeda, Ryo Kase, Adiz Rajabov Kiyoshi Kurosawa may have made a name for himself in horror (especially here in the West), but his filmography is far more diverse than one might assume, as anyone who caught the likes of Bright Future or Journey to the Shore can attest. He's a prolific and … Continue reading Review: To the Ends of the Earth
The following contains significant plot spoilers for the movie. The link between rain and catharsis is a staple of cinematic storytelling, often representative of a release of tension, a moment of acceptance, or some other instance of resolution. From Rutger Hauer musing on memories like "tears in rain" as his Roy Batty shuts down at … Continue reading Minutiae: The Rain Dance in Kotoko
Director: Yeon Sang-Ho Stars: Gang Dong-Won, Lee Jung-Hyun, Koo Kyo-Hwan Man, zombie movies hit different during a pandemic I guess. As the UK enters its second government-ordered lockdown, its perhaps inopportune timing for Train to Busan presents: Peninsula to reach our shores, but here we are, making the best of things. Peninsula moves time on … Continue reading Review: Train To Busan presents: Peninsula
