Grimmfest Review: Mara
Memory is a fragile thing. Anyone with friends or relatives who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s know just how painfully true this can be. On the other hand, those suffering from trauma or grief may gladly surrender certain events from their recollection. It’s an area which intrigues science fiction filmmakers, creating such wonderful cinema as …
Grimmfest Review: Rendez-Vous
Each filmmaker approaches their craft in a unique and individual way. This goes all the way back to the basics of how they write or approach a script to the choices made around filming and the equipment they’re going to use. One of the most complicated and complex ways of producing a film is by …
Grimmfest Review: Threshold
Modern technology has been rapidly changing the face of cinema. Long gone are the days when you need cumbersome equipment or a complex development process. Today, all you need is a mobile device, a lot of imagination and the appropriate software. The likes of Steven Soderbergh and Sean Baker have demonstrated what can be done …
Grimmfest Review: The Barcelona Vampire
There are stories and legends of vampires in many cultures and societies around the world. Whilst this folklore deviates in many ways, the evil at the heart of it largely stays the same. It’s a term which has been bandied around as a way of stigmatising or targeting certain people and groups, or as cautionary …
Film Review: Shiva Baby
A move from stand-up into TV and film is often a natural career progression for comedians. Whilst many have made this journey, it requires a very different skillset and few become regulars on our cinema screen. Steve Martin, Jim Carrey, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams are probably the most famous examples. While it certainly helps …
Grimmfest Easter Horror Nights Preview
Grimmfest takes place in Manchester every October and has cemented itself on the UK horror film festival calendar. Given the current ‘situation’, things have been a little different over the last year. However, whilst most of us are stuck indoors with little to do, they’ve decided to launch something a little special. Grimmfest Easter Horror …
Film Review: Zana
The Yugoslav wars were horrific and a damning indictment on the impotence of the (then) European Communities to take action. Less than fifty years after the Holocaust we let a genocide happen on our doorstep. The repercussions still reverberate widely today. It’s likely that the results of systematic ethnic cleansing, rape, torture and murder will …
Blu-Ray Review: Defending Your Life
As humans, we spend a disproportionate amount of time contemplating our own mortality. Sometimes at the expense of actually ‘living’. This inquisitiveness often centres on what happens after we depart this mortal coil. Is that it or is there something else? Life after death. Reincarnation. Heaven and Hell. Indeed, the concept of an eternal life …
Blu-Ray Review: Lost in America
Most of us spend much of our lives working, often in grey office blocks in some soulless and essentially pointless white-collar profession. Doing much the same thing, day in, day out. Never really making enough money to do much more than take a holiday every year. Maybe buy a house, start a family. Some people …
French Film Festival UK Review: The Translators
It’s often said that everyone has a book in them. Thankfully, most people don’t take up the challenge. Even so, it’s incredibly difficult to get a novel published, let alone make a living out of writing. However, sometimes an author manages to catch the imagination and becomes hot property. E-books and the internet have added …