Film Review: Belle
While for decades animation was derided as being solely the province of children, increasingly filmmakers are using it to impart serious messages to a much wider demographic. Japan tends to be ahead of the game in this, with Manga already firmly established within popular culture. The late Satoshi Kon and Mamoru Hosoda have both exploited …
Film Review: Potato Dreams of America
Growing up in the West, I think it’s impossible to fully understand what it was like to have spent your formative years in a country which was behind the Iron Curtain or taking its first steps towards capitalism. The things we took for granted. The television we watched. what we were taught in school. the …
Film Review: Memoria
While the name Aphichatphong Wirasetthakun may not be familiar to most, on the festival circuit and within cinephile circles he’s considered to be one of the best filmmakers currently working in independent cinema. The Thai director’s most famous work, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2010, …
Film Review: Cow
Andrea Arnold is undoubtedly one of the greatest living British filmmakers. While she has always been brimming with ideas and opinions, the Dartford native has been on a long journey since her time as a host on Number 73. However, it was clear from her Oscar-winning short Wasp and feature debut Red Road that she …
Blu-Ray Review: The Gunfighter
During the 1950s and 1960s, there were few more popular actors in Hollywood than Gregory Peck. He starred in a number of films, across several genres, becoming both a heartthrob and hard man in a number of memorable roles. Winning an Oscar for his portrayal of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird and plaudits …
Sundance 2022 Preview
Every January in Park City, Utah, the Sundance Film Festival comes to town. It’s the largest independent film festival in America and prides itself on screening a diverse range of world premieres from around the globe and promoting new filmmaking voices. This year’s line-up is the usual high-quality mix of US and World narrative and …
Film Review: A Hero
Few directors have been more successful over the last decade or so than Asghar Farhadi. The Iranian filmmaker is one of the few people to win two Oscars, for A Separation and The Salesman, as well as securing a raft of other awards. Unlike many of his peers, he’s committed to his homeland and still …
Film Review: Boiling Point
If you’ve ever had a job in a busy restaurant kitchen, you’ll know what a unique working environment it is. One which feels like organised chaos, at peak times, and only works if all the different members of the team pull together, in tandem. This requires each individual to know what they’re doing and understand …
Blu-ray Review: Dillinger
America has a long and complex history with its outlaws. This fascination dates back all the way to the time of colonisation and the Old West. The likes of Jesse James, Billy the Kid and Butch Cassidy wrote their own legends and captured the public’s imagination. As the wild frontier was replaced by urban sprawl …
Blu-Ray Review: Hiroshima Mon Amour
In the final year of World War II, mankind did something which, in retrospect, seems almost unthinkable. The dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945, resulting in the instant death of 80,000 people (many more were injured or subsequently died from the fallout), highlighted why we should never play god. Originally commissioned …