Film
Fantasia Review – Caution Hazardous Wife: The Movie
I think most of us, at one time or another, have dreamt of escaping from our everyday boring humdrum lives. Travelling the world and doing lots of exciting and fun/dangerous things. The clash between suburban ennui and a secret personality is one which pervades popular culture, from superheroes to undercover spies. The latter most successfully …
EIFF Review: Walk With Angels
Children routinely go missing in South Africa. About one every five hours on average according to official statistics, but the true picture is likely to be much worse. This can be for many reasons. They may have run away from home, fleeing violence or something worse, or been kicked out for one reason or another. …
EIFF Review: Even Mice Belong in Heaven
Thanks to the likes of Disney, Ghibli and Pixar, as well as smaller studios such as LAIKA and Cartoon Saloon, animation has become an integral part of mainstream cinema. Whilst the films we see on the big screen are mostly CGI or 3D, there continues to be a small but noticeable number of stop-motion movies …
EIFF Review: The Beta Test
Breaking into the film industry is far from easy. Independent filmmakers can spend years and years trying to get their big break. Often making a number of shorts in the hope that they’ll impress enough to secure funding. Take Jim Cummings, for example. Despite releasing his first debut feature back in 2010 it took eight …
EIFF Review: The Gig Is Up
As long as there has been the concept of ownership, workers have been abused and exploited by their employers. Whilst slavery might well now be illegal in most of the world, that doesn’t mean to say that slave labour or the equivalent of indentured servitude doesn’t still exist. Indeed, whilst the industrial revolution and technological …
Film Review – Kipchoge: The Last Milestone
As homo sapiens we seem motivated to incessantly push the limits of our own bodies. There’s a relentless desire to run faster or for longer, jump higher or further, throw harder or with more accuracy. What would have originally been necessitated by our needs as hunter gatherers to eat or survive is now replaced by …
EIFF Review: The Bright Side
Comedians are often depicted as being happy on the outside, crying on the inside. Going on stage and making people laugh night after night has to take a psychological toll. It’s an inherently lonely profession and rates of depression, anxiety, alcoholism etc are much higher than most other careers. The sad clown paradox is alive …
EIFF Review: Pig
It’s fair to say that over the years Nicolas Cage has garnered a reputation for being a man on the edge. The internet is full of memes and compilation videos of the American letting rip. Indeed, this ‘craziness’ seems to have now almost become expected of him in a career which is prolific, to say …
Film Review: 499
In the early sixteenth century, the event known as the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire took place with the invasion of (today’s) Mexico by the Southern European nation. Over a period of two years, the Spanish created a coalition of the Aztec’s enemies and waged war on the Mexica of Tenochtitlan (and their allies), …
Blu-ray Review: Luca
There are very few animation studios which can compete with Pixar. Indeed, since the release of Toy Story in 1995 it has received 23 Academy Awards and is now a subsidiary of the mighty mouse himself. They’ve created some of the most iconic and recognisable children’s films and characters with the likes of Woody, Buzz …