Film Review: Buttercup Bill
Intriguingly described as a psycho-sexual drama, Buttercup Bill is certainly a brave first feature from directors Remy Bennett and Emilie Richard-Froozan. Eschewing a linear narrative, it’s a brooding, sweaty and intimate portrait of a lifelong friendship with deeper undertones. We learn little about Pernilla (Bennett) and Patrick (Evan Louison) as individuals. Instead, the film focuses …
Incoming: L’eclisse
To avoid money issues and have a more comfortable life, Vittoria (Monica Vitti), the daughter of a modest family, lived for three years with Ricardo (Francisco Rabal), a young embassy attache, but she gets tired of this life without love and despite Ricardo’s pleas, she breaks up with him. Spending time at the Stock Exchange …
Incoming: Straight Outta Compton
In 1987, five young men, using brutally honest rhymes and hardcore beats, put their frustration and anger about life in the most dangerous place in America into the most powerful weapon they had: their music. Taking us back to where it all began, Straight Outta Compton tells the true story of how these cultural rebels—armed …
DVD Review: Medium Cool (Masters of Cinema)
Turbulent times often lead to some of the most groundbreaking cinema. 1968 was possibly the most unstable year in post-war American history. The US were on the back foot in Vietnam, and with public anger at boiling point, President Lyndon Johnson resigned during the Primaries. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were both assassinated, the …
DVD Review: Dragon’s Return
Nationalism demands strong heroic (normally male) characters and Eastern European under the post-war regimes were full of ‘men of the people’. Polish cinema in particular is teeming with examples of hard working men who lived off the land and rose to glory for the good of the nation. Not to be outdone, Czechoslovakia had a …
Incoming: The Wolfpack
Locked away from society in an apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Angulo brothers learn about the outside world through the films that they watch. Nicknamed the Wolfpack, the brothers spend their childhood re-enacting their favourite films using elaborate homemade props and costumes. With no friends and living on welfare, they feed …
Film Review: The Dance of Reality
23 years is a long time to wait for a film, but then again Alejandro Jodorowsky is no ordinary director. Very few filmmakers have a unique vision, style, individualism and cult following which inspires someone to make a documentary about one of their aborted projects (as Frank Pavich does in Jodorowsky’s Dune). With surrealist masterpieces …
Film Review: The Forgotten Kingdom
Sometimes films just need to breathe. In a world where modern cinema is cluttered with special effects and cynicism, Andrew Mudge’s The Forgotten Kingdom is a breath of fresh air. On a personal level, I’ve always been fascinated by the country of Lesotho; a little island in the sea of South Africa. I’ve never seen …
Film Review: The Treatment
Scandinavian noir might have been the hottest import over the last decade, but before Stieg Larsson changed the face of modern crime dramas, Mo Hayder has writing dark psychological British crime fiction. The Treatment (De Behandeling) is an adaptation of her second book of the same name, and one of seven novels featuring the same …
Incoming: Escobar: Paradise Lost
Nick (Josh Hutcherson) thinks he has found paradise when he goes to join his brother in Colombia. A turquoise lagoon, an ivory beach, perfect waves – it’s a dream for this young Canadian surfer. Then he meets Maria (Claudia Traisac), a stunning Colombian girl. They fall madly in love, and everything is going great. That …