LFF Review: The Sea Ahead
Lebanon is a country in an existential crisis. Today, the currency has all but collapsed and inflation spirals out of control. While fuel shortages have made normal life all but impossible. The most talented young people have left the country and civil unrest increases inexorably. The majority of the population have fallen into poverty. Beirut …
Blu-Ray Review: The Sabata Trilogy
The ‘Wild West’ needs its heroes but they can come in some of the strangest guises. Especially in Spaghetti Westerns, where genre tropes and cliches are treated with disdain and often inverted. This irreverent approach has created some of the most iconic films and characters within the wider genre. While the figure of Clint Eastwood …
Film Review: The Lodger
The loss of a loved one, especially a life partner, can affect people in strange and unusual ways. We can shrink into ourselves and away from the outside world, lost in our grief and memories. Or we can approach the future head-on, determined to move on with our lives whilst never forgetting the past. There …
Film Review – The Outsiders: The Complete Novel
Francis Ford Coppola was one of the best American directors of his generation, albeit his later work is not on a par. He formed part of the ‘New Hollywood’ movement of the 1960s and 1970s along with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas and Brian De Palma. He’s most famous for making …
LFF Review: Babi Yar. Context
Babi Yar is a ravine in Kiev. Its bloody past has afforded it a place in the darkest days of history. Over the course of the 29th and 30th September, 1941, approximately 33,771 Jews were massacred by the occupying German forces. Their bodies dumped and covered with earth in the deep gorge. In the months …
Film Review: Freeland
American independent cinema is a great breeding ground for some of the best actors, but that doesn’t mean they all go on to achieve fame and fortune. Despite coming to the profession relatively late, and not making a breakthrough until starring in nephew Trey Edward Shults’ critically acclaimed debut, Krisha Fairchild is fast proving to …
Film Review: The Medium
While a good yarn is difficult to beat, the truth is often stranger than fiction. Sometimes, considerably scarier as well. There’s something inherently unsettling when you’re watching a creepy true story. We naturally empathise with the victim, imagine ourselves in their shoes. The line can blur between fact and fiction. Occasionally there’s even deceit at …
LFF Review: Leave No Traces
Poland has long played an integral role in European history. The invasion of the country by Germany sparked World War II and its subsequent membership of the Eastern Bloc and the Warsaw Pact, revolution and independence have all been turbulent. Solidarity, a trade union movement, played a pivotal role in this political change. In 1983, …
LFF Review: The Alleys
When we’re children, the world around you feels huge and scary. However, as we get older, we soon realise just how small our neighbourhood is. If you live in compact housing, there’s a reasonable chance everyone knows each other. This can be both good and bad. While communities can be great sources of support and …
LFF Review: Ripples of Life
Today’s capitalist China is almost unrecognisable from where the country was at the end of the last century. By embracing private enterprise and a market economy, the ‘red dragon’ has focussed its massive human, technological and mineral resources into becoming the second largest economy in the world. However, this revolution has come at a price, …