Film
Film Review: Bad Boys for Life
Viewers of a certain age (including yours truly) were excited to learn last year that a new installment of the popular Bad Boys franchise was due to hit cinemas this January. The first movie was the big-screen debut from a then little-known 30-year-old music video director called Michael Bay that marked comedy actors Martin Lawrence’s …
New Music: Max Richter – ‘AD ASTRA’ soundtrack
A sci-fi thriller set in the future, AD ASTRA stars Brad Pitt as an elite astronaut who travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his missing father and unravel a mystery that threatens the survival of our planet. His journey will uncover secrets that challenge the nature of human existence and …
Blu-Ray Review: Cruising
Following the masterful 40th anniversary Blu-Ray restoration of his lost classic Sorcerer in 2017, it’s now the turn of director William Friedkin’s even more unjustly forgotten 1980 thriller Cruising to get the Blu-Ray treatment. The film was adapted from Gerald Walker’s 1970 novel of the same name and also drew inspiration from a real-life series …
Blu-ray review: Eating Raoul
After the prudish post-war years and the stifled ‘50s, America was rocked by the sexual revolution. Which coincided with the free love movement and the emancipation of women from their sexual chains. What reached its height at Woodstock gradually evolved and eventually rotted. By the early 1980s, swingers were more likely to be viewed as …
Film Review: Mystify
Michael Hutchence is the kind of pop star/rock God that the musically industry simply doesn’t tolerate today. In INXS, he fronted one of Australia’s most popular bands. During the ‘80s and ‘90s they had hit after hit. Their albums, Listen Like Thieves, Kick and X, sold millions whilst the likes of Disappear, Suicide Blonde, Need …
Film Review: What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?
Race relations in the United States of America are probably at their lowest levels since the Civil Rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s. 2017 was a particularly turbulent year, with murders of young black men sending shockwaves around the country. Whilst this may have only had a limited impact in many places, there was …
Blu-Ray Review: 3 From Hell
One of the most singular and original voices in genre cinema today is Rob Zombie. The former White Zombie co-founder has clearly had a love of classic horror movies for a long time. However, unlike many of his peers, he has a deep grasp and understanding of film history. His first two films, House of …
Blu-ray Review: The Dogs of War
For many, the enduring image they have of Christopher Walken is of his performance as Nick in Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter. Whilst the distinctive actor has been working consistently since 1969, you’ve probably never heard of half the films he’s been in. Often, to be honest, with good cause. Back in 1980, he starred …
LFF Review: The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao
Whilst siblings are often close, there’s something rather unusual about the bonds between sisters. A connection which, despite being invisible, is incredibly hard to break. An understanding and intimacy which is difficult to describe. This complex relationship has been captured on celluloid in the likes of Ginger Snaps, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Virgin Suicides …
LFF Review: So Long, My Son
When the Communist Party decided to relax the one-child policy in 2013, and subsequently changed the national family planning to two children per couple, it marked the end of a controversial and disquieting era in China’s history. Whilst adherence to the law sometimes depended on where you lived and your economic position, it has caused …