DVD/Blu-Ray Review
Blu-Ray Review: Shaft
Hollywood has always been a very white place. Whilst some purposeful steps have been made this century, at least in front of the camera, there is still a long way to go. When black people appeared on screen in the early 1970s, they were usually the bad guy or, at best, a sidekick. There were …
Blu-Ray Review: Black Girl
While you might think that domestic servitude is a thing of the past, it’s alive and kicking in many parts of the world. While it’s rife in regions such as the Indian Subcontinent, Middle-East, South-East Asia and many parts of Africa, that doesn’t mean to say it doesn’t still happen in Europe. While the colonial …
Blu-Ray Review: Execution in Autumn
Lee Hsing sadly passed away last year at the ripe old age of 91. The godfather of Taiwanese cinema made over thirty films in a career spanning over four decades. As well as being popular with audiences in his homeland, he was nominated for, and won, a number of awards at the national Golden Horse …
Blu-Ray Review: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Luis Buñuel was undoubtedly one of the most distinctive, and successful, European filmmakers of his generation. Spending much of his youth in Paris, the Spaniard was deeply involved with the surrealism movement. He carried this with him throughout his career, going on to make a number of critically acclaimed and iconic films. Working across a …
Blu-Ray Review: The Paper Chase
Mankind has always thirsted for knowledge. There are those of us who are driven to learn. Striving to attend the most prodigious schools and universities. To be taught by the most eminent figures in their respective fields. Exercising the competitive urge to prove that they’re the best. To be seen and respected. As the saying …
Blu-Ray Review: Crazy Mama
The name Jonathan Demme will be well known to many film fans, largely for his work on Silence of the Lambs and, to a lesser extent, the Oscar-winning Philadelphia. They might be slightly surprised to discover that he’s gone on to make almost twenty feature films. There’s a bigger shock in store when you take …
Blu-ray Review: Caged Heat
While Orange is the New Black brought the female prison drama to the mainstream, it’s an area of interest which has proved popular across decades, for good and ill. Indeed, in the 1970s there were a raft of exploitation/sexploitation films centred around incarcerated females. These movies were usually ultra-violent with a ‘fuck you’ attitude; often …
Blu-ray Review: All About Evil
When Netflix released the critically and publicly acclaimed Russian Doll in 2019 it marked another fascinating step in the career of Natasha Lyonne. She first came to prominence at the end of the last century in teen comedies such as American Pie and But I’m a Cheerleader. Going on to make the gradual transition into …
Blu-Ray Review: Next Stop, Greenwich Village
By the time Los Angeles became a mecca for young Americans wanting to make their name in the film industry, New York had been attracting aspiring thespians for decades. While Hollywood is incredibly competitive, it’s probably even harder to break into Broadway; given the relative number of films which get made compared to plays. In …
Blu-Ray Review: The Razor’s Edge
During the 1920s, and the following three decades, matinée idols played an important role in Hollywood. Almost always male, these stars were known for their debonaire good looks and normally cast as romantic leads or secondary leads. While it was often used as a derogatory term, there were many actors who rose above this tag. …