Film
Fantasia Review: Giving Birth to a Butterfly
It’s all too easy to get wrapped up in our lives, focussed on the daily grind and simply taking one day at a time, losing sight of the bigger picture. Anything that threatens to interfere with this routine can feel like an unwanted distraction. Sometimes we just need to just stop, breathe, and take stock …
Film Review: Homeroom
School can be a difficult time for anyone but once the end is in-sight stress and anxiety levels can go through the roof. This is the case in any year but we’re not living in ‘normal’ times. Students of today aren’t simply taxed by the troubles of growing up, plotting a future, exam results, relationships …
Blu-Ray Review: A Tale of Two Sisters
The first wave of modern Asian horror hit the rest of the world at the turn of the century, with the likes of Ringu, Battle Royale, Audition and Pulse wowing and terrifying unprepared and unsuspecting new audiences. Genre filmmaking borrowed generously from national folklore, legends and superstitions. Where Japan led, South Korea soon followed. Whispering …
Film Review: The Lost Leonardo
Leonardo da Vinci was the most famous painter from the High Renaissance period but his skills spanned numerous technical and scientific disciplines. Despite his fame and the continued popularity of the Mona Lisa, there are less than twenty surviving paintings which can be definitely attributed to him. A sale of one of this small number …
Film Review: Wendy
Very few children actively want to grow up. That may change during puberty but until then an eternal childhood seems like a utopian dream. In the early twentieth century Scottish novelist J. M. Barrie created the character Peter Pan, the boy who wouldn’t grow up. Readers were introduced to the magic world of Netherland, pirates, …
Fantasia Review: Hold Me Back
We live in a world where the expectation to get married and raise a family is almost as strong as ever. Whilst the nature of relationships may have changed, being single after a certain age is still viewed by many as a failure, or at least something distinctly odd. However, when you live alone for …
Film Review: Josee, The Tiger and The Fish
In the West, for far too long animation was seen as something that was solely the preserve of children’s films. Something immature and inane which adults could guiltily enjoy, so long as they were with their kids. Thankfully, this is no longer the case. Studios like Pixar, Dreamworks and Disney recognised the financial potential of …
Fantasia Review: Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break
Whilst the primetime programmes can often leave a lot to be desired, Britain has always excelled when it comes to what can loosely be described as ‘alternative comedy’. You can trace this back to the likes of The Goon Show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Derek and Clive, The Young Ones and the output from the …
Fantasia Review: Seobok
Humans are the only animals who contemplate their own mortality. I’m not quite sure how you could prove this, but as evolved sentient creatures we approach death with a mixture of trepidation, fear and occasionally glee. The quest for immortality has occupied man for millennia, with concepts such as the Fountain of Youth dating back …
Fantasia Review – Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist
When Satoshi Kon died from cancer at the age of 46 in 2010 the world lost one of the greatest living filmmakers. In a career which only lasted a decade, he made four iconic films and one of the most outstanding animated series of the century. Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika and Paranoia …