FIlm Review
Film Review: The Student
Since 9/11, the rise of religious fundamentalism has (if you believe the news) been spiralling out of control. Almost all the media attention has fallen on Islamic terrorism, whilst many of the atrocities perpetrated in the Western world are carried out by other forms of radicalisation. Russia is a country with many troubles, exacerbated by …
Film Review: We Are X
Whilst Japanese rock has never been able to carve more than just a niche outside of Japan, many bands have garnered a cult following around the world. Acts such as Luna Sea, Melt Banana, The Boredoms, Nightmare, The GazettE and L’Arc-en-Ciel have all built a small but meaningful following. However, there has been one band …
Film Review: Googly Eyes (Short Film)
Part of UCLA’s ‘Film School Shorts’ series, Googly Eyes is a thirteen-minute comedy about Gary (Cooper Barnes), a slacker whose chronic earache stirs up memories of his childhood and unresolved baggage with his ex-girlfriend Suzy (Laura Spencer). Shot in black and white, and focusing on a tense and shifting relationship between two apartment-sharing twenty-somethings, it’s reminiscent of another quirky, inner-city …
Film Review: Lost In France
Scotland has a long tradition of producing ground-breaking and high quality independent music. Glasgow has usually acted as a focal point for this. Hot on the heels of the likes of The Pastels and Teenage Fanclub, a group of bands sprang up around the Chemikal Underground label. The likes of The Delgados, Mogwai, Bis, Arab …
Film Review: Hidden Figures
Hidden Figures is a true story about races, in both senses of the word. It is about black and white communities in segregated 1961 Virginia, and about three women (and one nation) sprinting to be first. NASA ‘calculator’ Mary (Janelle Monáe) dreams of being the Agency’s first African American woman engineer but can’t get there …
Film Review: The White King
Young Adult Fiction has become one of the most fertile sources for Hollywood blockbusters. However, whilst The Hunger Games was a huge success, more often than not you end up with something disastrous like The Golden Compass or the turgid Divergent and Maze Runner films. In The White King, Alex Helfrecht and Jörg Tittel bring …
Film Review: Zero Days
World War III will not be contested with guns, tanks or bombs. It will be a secret war which won’t take place on any battlefield. Instead of fighting in the streets, the arena of conflict will be in cyberspace. This has already started and we’re now reaching a point where hackers have the potential to …
Film Review: Endless Poetry
Alejandro Jodorowsky is one of a kind. There’s simply no other film-maker quite like him. Whilst his films range from the obtuse to the downright impenetrable, the Chilean has a unique aesthetic eye and lyrical style. Endless Poetry is the second of Jodorowsky’s five planned cinematic memoirs. Following on from The Dance of Reality, the …
Film Review: Call of Heroes
Hong Kong has built a reputation for producing high quality and action-packed cinema. From the studied nostalgia of Wong Kar-wai to the bullets and mayhem of John Woo, they’ve found a market with English-speaking audiences. When it comes to action, it’s the gangster and cop films of Johnnie To which are prevalent. However, the co-produced …
Film Review: Operation Chromite
As current events in Syria attest, conflict zones often turn into a microcosm of a much larger conflict. Following the end of World War II and the division of Korea, the onset of the Cold War saw the arena of conflict move east. The Korean War began in 1950, with China and Russia backing the …