Film
Blu-ray: BeanpoleSunday, 13 September 2020
Kantemir Balagov’s second feature announces the arrival of a major new talent in arthouse cinema. Made by the Russian director when he was just 27, and premiered at Cannes last year, where it won in the “Un Certain Regard” strand, Beanpole... Read more... |
Max Richter's Sleep review - refreshing as a good night's restSaturday, 12 September 2020
If there was ever a balm for these confusing times, then it’s Max Richter’s Sleep, a lullaby of a documentary that explores the composer’s eight-hour-plus experimental 2015 composition based on sleep cycles. Richter is a remarkable... Read more... |
Broken Hearts Gallery review - effortfully entertainingFriday, 11 September 2020
Remember when romcoms didn't try so hard? That question kept going through my head for the first half, or more, of Broken Hearts Gallery, a film from Canadian writer-director Natalie Krinsky that ultimately in tugging at the heart but has to go... Read more... |
Savage review - an immersive look at gang culture in Wellington, New ZealandThursday, 10 September 2020
Not to be confused with Savages, the Oliver Stone film of 2012 about marijuana smuggling, Savage is a story of New Zealand street gangs: how to join and how to escape, which, when you’ve got the words Savages and Poneke (the Maori name for... Read more... |
'I loved being a dresser': Sir Ronald Harwood, Oscar-winning writer, dies at 85Wednesday, 09 September 2020
Ronald Harwood, who has died at the age of 85, was best known for his play about tending to the needs of the larger-than-life actor-manager Donald Wolfit. The Dresser, adapted by Harwood, went on to become a great film success starring Tom Courtenay... Read more... |
The Painted Bird review - bestial horror conveyed with beautyWednesday, 09 September 2020
Based on a novel by Jerzy Kosinski, The Painted Bird is an extraordinarily powerful chronicle of a young Jewish boy’s survival in Eastern Europe, the scene of some of the most terrible violence, inhumanity, and depredation during the Second World... Read more... |
Sócrates review - pain and grief on the Brazilian coastWednesday, 09 September 2020
In the course of this short (65 minute) film, 15-year-old Sócrates wanders around Santos, in the state of Brazil’s São Paolo, and the nearby coast after the death of his mother, rejected at one point or another by everyone with whom he comes in... Read more... |
Les Misérables review - exhilarating French policierMonday, 07 September 2020
The only thing confusing with Les Misérables is its pointedly provocative title, as there are no costumed urchins and no singing involved. Searching online to find the UK cinemas where it’s playing this week entails a trek past the... Read more... |
Blu-ray: WalkaboutMonday, 07 September 2020
It’s always a timeslip moment, revisiting films first seen in your teens, but never more so than when watching this beautifully restored print of Walkabout. Nicolas Roeg filmed and directed this fever dream of a movie in 1970, after co-directing... Read more... |
Mulan review - Niki Caro's live action take on the '98 classic underwhelmsFriday, 04 September 2020
Whilst New Mutants slips surreptitiously into cinemas, Disney’s live-action spin on Mulan arrives with more fanfare on their streaming platform, even if it does come with a price-tag of nearly £20.Director Niki Caro (Whale Rider... Read more... |
I'm Thinking of Ending Things review - only disconnectThursday, 03 September 2020
I’m Thinking of Ending Things ends in a giddying gusher of weirdness, the steady drip of earlier oddness finally bursting its narrative banks, till a horror scene becomes a Gene Kelly ballet, and an Oklahoma! tune is sung in bitter valediction by a... Read more... |
New Mutants review - superheroes and the supernatural collideThursday, 03 September 2020
It hasn’t been an easy ride for Josh Boone’s New Mutants. Delayed production, reshoots, the acquisition of 20th Century Fox by Disney, Covid-19, and accusations of whitewashing, have all contributed to it being dubbed a ‘cursed’ film. Now, with... Read more... |
