Film
Blu-Ray Review: Eve’s Bayou
Some people seem to have the ideal life. The big house, the great job, the beautiful partner and children. Popular, with a large number of glamorous friends and associates. Everyone wants to know and be seen with them. Courts their favour. However, looks can be deceiving and when you peek behind the curtain there’s often …
Raindance Review: Our River…Our Sky
Thanks to the reign of Saddam Hussein and two Gulf Wars, people in the West are much more familiar with Iraq than most of the Middle East. While the end of war might have signalled a new era for Iraq, that didn’t mean peace. Indeed, even while the coalition still occupied the country, violence and …
Film Review: Omar Sosa’s 88 Well-Tuned Drums
By any measure, Omar Sosa is an unusual musician and composer. The highly-influential artist studied percussion at a prestigious conservatoire in Havana before carrying out his military service during the Angolan Civil War. He then transplanted himself to Ecuador, where he used his talents to compose commercial jingles to earn a living. Before moving to …
Blu-Ray Review: Censor
While it seems like a long time ago now, the 1980s was a great period of change. The social and political unrest of the previous decade was replaced by a Conservative government led by the inimitable Margaret Thatcher and her free market politics. Technology was moving at pace and cheap access to VHS meant people …
Blu-Ray Review: Lost Highway
There’s nothing quite like a David Lynch mystery to get the old grey matter working. There’s no one quite like him in modern cinema and, despite some obvious influences and recurring themes, his reluctance to explain anything ensures the mystique endures. So many column inches have been dedicated to attempting to decode the inner meaning …
Film Review: Holy Spider
Iran has been in the news a lot recently, and not for the right reasons. Sparked by the murder of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, who had been taken into custody by the morality police, the country has been in the grip of violent protests since September. The lack of rights for women is nothing …
Film Review: A Game of Secrets
On the face of it, football agents play a vital role in the sport. Clubs and their rich owners have traditionally held all the cards when it comes to transfers and contract negotiations. Using their leverage to take advantage of (often under-educated) footballers. These middlemen (and women) paly an important role in representing their interests. …
WIFF Review: Rock. Paper. Grenade
Following the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine regained its independence in 1991. While it was seen as a fresh new beginning, declaring itself politically neutral, as with many of the former Soviet states it struggled to adapt to capitalism. The transition to a market economy has been a bumpy one and, even before Putin’s invasion …
Film Review: Doctor Who Am I
While there have always been dedicated fans of popular films and tv series, the advent of social media has driven degrees of obsession to new and worrying levels. The ability to connect with likeminded people across the globe has driven fandom to reach new heights. The desire for ‘content’ is almost unquenchable, as is the …
Blu-Ray Review: Raw Deal
Arnold Schwarzenegger was one of the most recognisable faces of action cinema during the latter part of the twentieth century. He was arguably the biggest box office pull at one stage and his muscle-bound image became part of popular culture. Most of his early films follow a similar pattern. His dialogue was restricted (due to …