Film Review: Night Moves
Kelly Reichardt’s films have always owed a debt to the work of Terrence Malick. Ever since her debut Rivers of Grass, the American director has segued elements that are quintessentially Malick into her films. There’s a studied elegance in Reichardt’s film-making, and in her latest movie Night Moves she pushes herself to another level in …
Film Season Preview: A Century of Chinese Cinema
When we look at the history of cinema in the West we almost instinctively think of Hollywood or European films. Whilst images from Chaplin, Dreyer or Murnau may be familiar, the onset of globalisation and the internet has brought a whole plethora of films from around the world to the attention of a far greater …
Incoming: The Keeper of Lost Causes
Following a shootout that left his two partners respectively dead and paralyzed, chief detective Carl Mørck is assigned to the newly established Department Q, a department for old, terminated cases. The department consists only of himself and his new assistant Assad. Although they get explicit orders to only read and sort through the cases, only …
Film Festival Preview: Portobello Film Festival
The Portobello Film Festival was created in 1996 as a reaction to the moribund state of the British film industry, to provide a forum for new film-makers and give exposure to movies on different formats. It’s grown steadily over the years and this year’s festival will take place across three different venues with different strands: …
DVD Review: Mr Morgan’s Last Love
Assumed accents and mixed language films are a precarious undertaking. Whilst some actors can pull it off superbly there’s always the worry that things will descend into a Far and Away style mess. In Mr Morgan’s Last Love, Michael Caine struggles with an American accent which all too often drops out or goes over the …
DVD Review: The Soft Skin
Many of François Truffaut’s film have elements of the autobiographical and The Soft Skin is no exception. Written in collaboration with Jean-Louis Richard, the French director in renowned for having affairs with his leading ladies. Luckily for Truffaut he didn’t suffer the same fate as Jean Desailly does in the film. On his way to …
DVD Review: I am Divine
Occasionally someone comes along who is such a huge personality that they immediately dominate every film they’re in, becoming a phenomenon. Divine (Harris Glenn Milstead), actor, singer and drag queen, became a huge underground success through his collaboration with John Waters. I am Divine is his story. Jeffrey Schwarz’s documentary charts Milstead’s early life right …
Film Review: The Paddy Lincoln Gang
I’m naturally suspicious of any film which tries to sell itself off the back of having a ‘famous’ musician in it. More often than not their appearance is fleeting and cringeworthy. In The Paddy Lincoln Gang, Glen Matlock has a very brief cameo which sadly fits into the above box. However, playing on this does …
DVD Review: Divergent
There’s been a huge market for young adult fiction over the last decade with the trend for horror/fantasy moving towards dystopian sci-fi. With The Hunger Games already becoming a huge box office hit and The Maze Runner shortly to follow, the next set of best-selling books to get a cinematic makeover are Veronica Roth’s Divergent …
DVD Review: Sake Bomb
Asian comedies can sometimes lose much of their humour in translation, often struggling to find a Western market. I remember watching the Japanese comedy Ping Pong, which is a lowbrow American Pie imitation until about halfway through when it suddenly changed into a serious drama It was a very bizarre experience. However, when it’s done …