Director: Stanley Kubrick Stars: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack If being a cinephile is a form of addiction (and it often feels like it is) then the films of Stanley Kubrick are its gateway drugs. Not Kubrick alone, granted, but there are a clutch of 'great' directors whose work is easily available, who open … Continue reading Review: Eyes Wide Shut (20th anniversary)
Director: Mike Flanagan Stars: Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Ewan McGregor Redefining for yourself what constitutes family is a large part of Doctor Sleep. the belated follow-up to both Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Those two precursors are famously divergent. King hated Kubrick's film, which is widely regarded as one of the horror masterpieces. Kubrick altered the … Continue reading Review: Doctor Sleep
Josh and Benny Safdie's Heaven Knows What didn't make much noise when it landed in the UK. Indeed, none of the duo's films quite managed to break into public consciousness until Robert Pattinson starred for them in 2017's Good Time, and even then the fanfare generally remained squarely within the cinephile community waiting to embrace it. That's … Continue reading Minutiae: The Kubrickian Cut in Heaven Knows What
Here at the Hotel I have a different approach to Christmas. Sure, there are the classics. It's A Wonderful Life, Die Hard, Gremlins etc, etc. But a tradition of sorts has also appeared of going back to the least Christmassy of yuletide films. Essentially, if you're not one to deck the halls with whatever but still like to theme … Continue reading The Lost Highway Hotel’s Alternative Christmas
The Shining is one of my all-time favourite movies. I'd put it in my top 5. I love watching it and have lost count of the number of times I've seen it. Last year I had the wonderful opportunity to see it on a cinema screen, on Halloween no less. I jumped at the chance. … Continue reading Review: Room 237
Year: 1968 Director: Stanley Kubrick Stars: Keir Dullea (Dr Dave Bowman), Gary Lockwood (Dr Frank Poole), William Sylvester (Dr Heywood Floyd), Douglas Rain (Voice of HAL-9000), Leonard Rossiter (Dr Andrei Smyslov) Genre: Science Fiction Where the fuck do you start with this? Like the mysterious monoliths that signal key shifts in the film’s drama, 2001: … Continue reading Why I Love… #22: 2001 A Space Odyssey
Year: 1980 Director: Stanley Kubrick Stars: Jack Nicholson (Jack Torrance), Shelley Duvall (Wendy Torrance), Danny Lloyd (Danny Torrance), Scatman Crothers (Mr Halloran) Genre: Horror The 1970s were a revolutionary decade for horror. Arguably the last revolutionary decade the genre had. Horror became the genre for young upstart directors to make their mark in, and, with … Continue reading Why I Love… #3: The Shining
