Film
HRWFF Review: A Thousand Cuts
During his election campaign to become President of the Philippines in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte promised to eradicate the drug problem in the country. As mayor of Davao, he removed crime from the streets by employing death squads to murder drug users, petty criminals and the homeless. Since his election to the top job, he’s been …
HRWFF Review: Belly of the Beast
2020 was a busy year for news, but one of the biggest talking points was the death of George Floyd (one of many) and the Black Lives Matter protests. The USA has a serious problem with institutional racism which impacts on every aspect of life. The criminal justice and prisons systems are no exceptions. Indeed, …
Film Review: Slaxx
The ‘villain’ in horror cinema comes in many shapes and sizes, including strange mythical creatures, supernatural terrors, terrifying children or simply just a human who has gone very, very bad. The one thing they usually have in common is that they’re living, breathing, intelligent entities. But that’s not always the case. We’ve been tormented by …
BFI Flare Review: Dramarama
It’s not so long ago that being a nerd largely meant a childhood of bullying and constant abuse. To be different at school was almost asking to become a target. The worst part is the feeling that you’re all alone. Today, that situation, to a large extent, has been turned on its head. Nerdism has …
HRWFF Review: A La Calle
the spectre of Hugo Chavez looms large over Venezuelan society, years after his death. His movement gained huge popularity and he became an almost messianic figure, in and outside of the country. At one time ‘Chavismo’, a mix of left-wing populism and social reform, was a potential competitor to capitalism. However, any improvements often came …
BFI Flare 2021 Preview
The 35th edition of BFI Flare, London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival, will take place online between 17 and 28 March. One of the oldest and most prestigious queer film festivals in the world, this year there’s another impressive line-up with some of the best new LGBTIQ+ cinema from around the globe. This year, the line-up is …
Film Review: My Father And Me
Nick Broomfield has been an ever-present on the documentary circuit since the late 1970s. He is considered to be, inside and outside of the industry, one of the greatest factual filmmakers of his generation. His work is a mix of investigative reportage into difficult subjects and profiles of some of the most influential names within …
Blu-Ray Review: The Invisible Man Appears/ The Invisible Man Vs. The Human Fly
Since featuring as the protagonist in the H. G. Wells’ novel, first serialised in 1897, the eponymous Invisible Man has been a frequent figure in popular culture. However, the idea of invisibility is a concept which harks back to Greek and Roman legend, and beyond. The fascination with this character or idea is not merely …
HRWFF Review: The 8th
Whilst many people in the UK might look on at Ireland with a little jealousy at the moment, the Emerald Isle is by no means perfect. The country is progressive in many ways but, largely due to Roman Catholicism still being the predominant religion, has been often backward in many areas of social policy. Contraception …
French Film Festival UK: Love Affairs
No one does amour quite like the French. Looking in from the outside, it seems to play an important part in their national psyche. Those tangled and complicated webs which spin out across relationships seem to be prevalent in the arts. French cinema reflects this, with a perennially prolific output of romantic comedies and drama. …