DVD/Blu-Ray Review
DVD Review: The Fear of 13
There have always been documentaries about injustice and real life murder cases, but with the success if Serial, and more recently Making a Murderer, they’re currently extremely popular. Since the use of DNA evidence has become widespread there’s been a flurry or retrials and overturning of convictions. It’s pretty clear that the US justice system …
DVD Review: Grazing the Sky
Going to the circus is an entirely different prospect today than it was in Barnum’s day. Gone are the seedy reputations and the dubious animal and human rights records, replaced by tightly run multi-national businesses. The most well know, and one of the most popular live performance events around the world, is Cirque du Soleil. …
DVD Review: The Jacques Rivette Collection
The French New Wave (La Nouvelle Vague) still remains one of the most influential and innovative movements in the history of film. When you think of those associated with the movement, Jacques Rivette is not the first name that springs to mind. Compared with Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Jacques Demy, Agnes Varda, Alain Resnais, Eric …
DVD Review: Camp X-Ray
The War on Terror has thrown up many controversies, from the use of drone attacks to the killing of innocent civilians, but nothing has caused as much consternation as the Guantánamo Bay detention centre. Based on an American naval base in Cuba, the centre is considered to be outside of US law, allowing detainees to …
DVD Review: Momentum
The history of cinema is littered with films which flopped at the Box Office. Heaven’s Gate and Ishtar are two of the most famous examples but there are numerous films every year which either suffer the same fate or fail to even get a theatrical release. Granted, many of these films are absolute bilge, getting …
DVD Review: The Ninja Trilogy
Growing up in the ’80s I was one of those boys who had a fascination with martial arts films. I owned plastic nunchucks and shuriken, watching Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee movies as well as their Western imitators. I wanted to be a ninja, and not having the access to much Hong Kong cinema, I …
DVD Review: My Skinny Sister
The onset of puberty is never an easy time for a young girl. This confusion and growing pains can only be exacerbated when you have an attractive slim elder sister whose sporting ability takes over much of your parents’ attention. In My Skinny Sister, director Sanna Lenken tackles the subject of anorexia and the pressures …
DVD Review: A Girl at My Door
The South East Asia region is generally very traditional and conservative in its outlook. Homosexuality, for instance, is often treated in a way that those in the West may find perplexing and retrogressive. South Korea is a prime example. Whilst not illegal in the country there’s no official acknowledgement of LGBT rights. It’s a subject …
Film Review: Partisan
The Australian film industry is having somewhat of a purple patch currently. Off the back of the huge success of George Miller’s new Mad Max outing it has been a bumper year. The likes of The Suicide Theory, The Dressmaker, Frackman and Spear are helping establish Australia one of the most vital and exciting places …
DVD Review: The Angry Silence
The late 1950s and 1960s were a strong period for British cinema. This was driven by a new breed of film, sparked by John Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger, which loosely fall under the heading kitchen sink realism. Whilst Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, A Taste of Honey and Tony Richardson’s adaptation of Osborne’s …