Director: Steven Knight Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Rafael Sayegh Steven Knight has some strange credits behind him. Sure, his last directorial feature was the all-in-a-car character piece Locke (pretty good), and he's made a name for himself writing and directing for shows like Peaky Blinders and Taboo (also critically acclaimed)... but he's also the creator of TV … Continue reading Review: Serenity (2019)
Director: Lee Chang-Dong Stars: Yoo Ah-In, Steven Yeun, Jun Jong-Seo The first we know of Lee (Yoo Ah-In) is a wisp of smoke curling out from around a wall in the opening shot. Over the course of two and a half languid, beguiling hours, this sinuous trail will become an emblem of sorts. His chain-smoking travels ultimately take him … Continue reading Review: Burning
Director: Susanne Bier Stars: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, Sarah Paulson In 1988 John Carpenter made They Live, an apocalyptic sci-fi yarn that spoke of the blindness in society to rampant, soulless consumerism and also complacent, illadvised trust in authority. It received lukewarm responses and achieved a middling box office performance. It has become a cult classic, as … Continue reading Review: Bird Box
Director: Daniel Goldhaber Stars: Madeline Brewer, Patch Darragh, Melora Walters Of all professions, the oldest is among the most stigmatised by cinema. Sex workers do not carry much credo on the silver screen, especially in horror where they are almost always unsympathetic victims to whatever raving lunatic is wielding a knife this month. Don't get … Continue reading Review: Cam
Director: Drew Goddard Stars: Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Jon Hamm And lo, Drew Goddard, director of The Cabin In The Woods, finished watching Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight and thought to himself, "Well, I could do better than that." That's probably not what happened, but it certainly comes close to capturing a little of what Bad Times At The … Continue reading Review: Bad Times At The El Royale
Year: 1971 Director: Aldo Lado Stars: Jean Sorel, Barbara Bach, Ingrid Thulin There are better giallo films out there. Purer examples of the genre. But Aldo Lado's Short Night Of Glass Dolls is a devilishly entertaining and under-celebrated example. It's giallo seen through a fun house mirror, contorted into something that might've been just as fitting … Continue reading Why I Love… #101: Short Night Of Glass Dolls
Director: Aneesh Chaganty Stars: John Cho, Michelle La, Debra Messing The horror series Unfriended beat Aneesh Chaganty to the punch with the laptop-based variant of found footage cinema, but that shouldn't diminish how impressive some of the achievements are here. Searching is a new mystery thriller which wholly takes place on a computer screen, the narrative unfolding … Continue reading Review: Searching
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos Stars: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan "It was very Lynchian," I overheard a gentleman tell his wife upon leaving the screening of The Killing Of A Sacred Deer that I attended, as the varied audience tried to get a handle on what they'd just been through. Now, everyone is most certainly entitled to … Continue reading Review: The Killing Of A Sacred Deer
Director: F. Javier Gutiérrez Stars: Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Johnny Galecki, Alex Rose What next for the presumed-dead Ring movies? It's a question that Rings - the third installment in the American iteration of the franchise - struggles to answer, flitting from one idea to another and steadfast refusing to settle. There are four or five little movies … Continue reading Review: Rings
Year: 1976 Director: Jacques Rivette Stars: Juliet Bero (Leni), Bulle Ogier (Viva), Hermine Karagheuz (Lucie), Jean Babilée (Pierrot), Nicole Garcia (Elsa / Jeanne), Claire Nadieu (Sylvia Stern) Genre: Mystery / Fantasy If there is one thing I love, it's dream cinema. By which I do not mean dream sequences within otherwise conventionally made films (which … Continue reading Why I Love… #87: Duelle (une quarantaine)
Director: Tate Taylor Stars: Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Luke Evans The Girl On The Train is the latest bestselling 'girl' thriller to get squeezed through the Hollywood machine, but it's the one that comes sputtering out the other end with the least amount of grace, presented to us as a clumsy assemblage of plot holes, … Continue reading Review: The Girl On The Train
Having been renewed for a second season, Damon Lindelof and Tom Perotta decided to (or potentially were encouraged to) make some changes to their cult supernatural melodrama The Leftovers. One of the most notable was replacing Max Richter's histrionic theme music with a sourced and overly chirpy 1990's country song. Almost the polar opposite of what preceded … Continue reading Review: Midnight Special
The cinema is a verdant location for finding missing women. The mysteries of so many gone girls have revealed themselves on the silver screen, and Gregg Araki's latest, White Bird In A Blizzard, adapted from the book by Laura Kasischke, adds another iteration. Like the spaced-out font of its opening credits, White Bird feels slightly incomprehensible on initial … Continue reading Review: White Bird In A Blizzard
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
I'm going to have to start this one with a little first-world rant, okay, and it's going to sound bitterly middle class, so forgive me. I loathe multiplex cinemas. Despite their booming sound quality and abundance of choice (so long as its mainstream choice), you just can't guarantee a respectful audience. Unlike my local independent … Continue reading Review: Horns
