DVD/Blu-Ray Review
DVD Review: Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
Life for many is a trial. One of the biggest drivers in cinema is the human desire to escape the boring realities of life and spend a couple of hours in a different universe. Escapism is a common theme in modern filmmaking, and in the Zellner brothers’ Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter the central character embarks …
DVD Review: Appropriate Behaviour
Let’s be honest, most American romantic comedies are quite frankly awful. They mostly fall into two categories: cliche-riddled cheese-fests or over-melodramatic nonsense. We’re not much better ourselves in the UK. Every so often though an indie rom-com appears which bucks the trend. In the tradition of Greenberg, Juno, Lost in Translation, In A World and …
DVD Review: The Green Prince
There are many different angles of approach to storytelling in a documentary. Some directors opt for style over substance, whilst others indulge in a one-sided polemic. In The Green Prince, director Nadav Schirman made the decision to recount events from two different perspectives. Based on Mosab Hassan Yousef’s autobiography, this choice makes it feel more …
DVD Review: Paper Moon (Masters of Cinema)
Double acts have featured prominently in American film. From the early days of Laurel and Hardy and Crosby and Hope, to the heady heights of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Thelma and Louise and Riggs and Murtaugh, duos have been big Box Office. In Peter Bogdanovich’s Paper Moon it’s a family affair, with Ryan …
DVD Review: Nymphomaniac Director’s Cut
Lars Von Trier has made his reputation by going to places where other directors fear to tread. He first came to international prominence through the tear-jerking Breaking The Waves and the hysteria-inducing The Idiots. Nymphomaniac Vol 1&2 was originally going to be one film, but the last instalment of the ‘Depression Trilogy’ (along with Antichrist …
DVD Review: The Sleeping Room
British horror is a difficult beast, with low budgets and tired tropes often overly prevalent. In John Shackleton’s debut feature he tries to do something slightly different, and whilst it sadly doesn’t work as a whole, it’s a great first attempt under such financial constraints. Still affected by the death of her mother, Blue (Leila …
DVD Review: The Long Good Friday
The Long Good Friday in many ways marked the end of an era for a certain style of film making. The ’70s was a bumper period for gritty cinema on both sides of the Atlantic. The French Connection, Deliverance, Mean Streets, The Conversation, Taxi Driver and The Godfather Part 2 all setting theatres alight with …
DVD – Exodus: Gods and Kings
You can’t beat a good Biblical Epic. There are the classics such as The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur along with the more recent unrelenting Passion of Christ and the unfairly derided Noah. Ridley Scott, who directed the latter, is not stranger to epics; with both Gladiator and the criminally underrated Kingdom of Heaven to his …
DVD Review: The Offence
Sidney Lumet had a glittering career, making over fifty films spanning six decades. Beginning with the classic 12 Angry Men in 1957, he’s gone on to make such brilliant films as Serpico, Network, Dog Day Afternoon and The Verdict. In a rich period in the ’70s he was one of the most consistent and influential …
Blu-ray Review: Midnight Run
There’s a certain type of film which were synonymous with the 1980s. The buddy movie has undergone many different incarnations, from the early days of Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dean Martin’s light-hearted musical partnerships to the gross-out comedies that infest our cinemas today. The 80s tended to centre on cop double-acts. Whether it was …