Film Festival Preview: Sundance London
Taking place in Park City, Utah, Sundance Film Festival has established a reputation for showcasing and promoting the best new voices in independent cinema. Since 2012, the largest US independent film festival has been sending a selection of their finest over to the UK. Sundance London takes place at Picturehouse Central from 1-4 June. Comprising …
Blu-Ray Review: Hard Times
James Coburn and Charles Bronson are two of the most iconic faces of American post-war cinema. Both made their names in action films, but by 1975 Coburn was in the twilight of their career whilst Bronson still had some of his most profitable years ahead of him. Walter Hill’s directorial debut, Hard Times, was not …
Film Review: Heal the Living
It’s becoming more difficult by the day to find good in the world as everything seems to be going to Hell in a handcart. It’s easy to overlook every day acts of kindness when we’re bombarded with negative news 24 hours a day. Cinema has the ability to be introspective and focus on the beauty, …
Film Review: Suntan
It’s fair to say that Greece doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to cinema. There’s the occasional film which has been successful outside of Hellas, such as The Travelling Players, Stella or O Drakos, but these are few and far between. However, Greek cinema is currently having a really profitable period. This …
DVD Review: The Goddess
From the beginning of the 1930s until the Japanese invasion in 1937, Chinese cinema saw its first golden age. Based in Shanghai, a multicultural and Western-oriented city, these films often depicted ordinary people, reflecting the left-wing movement in the city. What is unique about this period is that the majority of the leading roles were …
Incoming: Their Finest
1940, London, the Blitz; with the country’s morale at stake, Catrin (Gemma Arterton), an untried screenwriter, and a makeshift cast and crew, work under fire to make a film to lift the nation’s flagging spirits; and inspire America to join the war. Partnered alongside fellow screenwriter, Buckley (Sam Claflin) and eccentric actor Ambrose Hilliard (Bill …
Blu-Ray Review: The Life of Oharu (Criterion Collection)
There have been many films made about prostitutes, courtesans and concubines, but in Kenji Mizoguchi 1952 film The Life of Oharu the principal is all three. However, it’s more in the territory of Raise the Red Lantern or Farewell My Concubine than Pretty Woman. Whilst prostitutes tend to be gin-soaked cockneys in British period dramas, …
Incoming: The Belko Experiment
In a twisted social experiment, a group of 80 Americans are locked in their high-rise corporate office in Bogotá, Colombia, and ordered by an unknown voice coming from the company’s intercom system to participate in a deadly game of kill or be killed in order to survive. The Belko Experiment is out in cinemas from …
Blu-Ray Review: Drunken Master (Masters of Cinema)
Martial Arts films were a huge global phenomenon at the beginning of the 1970s. The market was flooded with hundreds of low budget, badly dubbed films from Hong Kong. The most iconic figure from this era was undoubtedly Bruce Lee, but after his tragic death the hunt was on for someone to fill his shoes. …
Incoming: Clash
Set in a police truck, a group of demonstrators from across the divisions in Egyptian society are forced together through a series of violent protests in Cairo following the events of June 2013. Clash is out in cinemas from Friday.