Film
Collective review - waging war on corruptionWednesday, 02 December 2020
It was around the time of the 14th century Black Death that the word “corruption” – from the Latin corruptus, the past participle of corrumpere, “to mar, bribe, destroy” – was first associated with putrefaction. Moral corruption becomes inextricably... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Goodbye, Dragon InnTuesday, 01 December 2020
In his exclusive half-hour-plus interview for distributor Second Run, the affable Tsai Ming-Liang makes a striking admission: “I make very uncommercial films.” Viewers of the extra will most likely have just finished Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Bú sàn) (... Read more... |
Blu-Ray: La HaineSunday, 29 November 2020
The BFI has done an excellent job of giving La Haine the 4k restoration treatment under the vigilant eye of the film’s cinematographer, Pierre Aïm. From the opening image of planet earth being torched by a slo-mo Molotov cocktail to the... Read more... |
Uncle Frank review - well-acted but painfully contrivedSaturday, 28 November 2020
A top-rank cast swims against the tide in Uncle Frank, writer-director Alan Ball's well-intentioned but fatally contrived film that presumably contains more than a trace of the Oscar-winning filmmaker's own past. Telling of a gay southerner called... Read more... |
Another Round review - delight and despairFriday, 27 November 2020
You can practically smell the fumes coming off Thomas Vinterberg’s latest drama Another Round, known in Denmark simply as "Druk". Co-written with Tobias Lindholm, the story is anchored in a theory proposed by Finn Skårderud that humans have a blood... Read more... |
Possessor review - death by virtual realityThursday, 26 November 2020
Many have struggled to bring a new slant to the horror genre, but writer-director Brandon Cronenberg has managed it with Possessor, his second full-length feature. Being the son of David Cronenberg, a pioneer of so-called “body horror”, obviously... Read more... |
Hillbilly Elegy review - misery in the heartlandWednesday, 25 November 2020
Published in June 2016, J.D. Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy became a best-seller around the time of that November’s presidential election as people sought to understand why working class whites in the American heartland supported Donald Trump en... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Waxworks (1924)Tuesday, 24 November 2020
Stylistically, Waxworks (1924) was the apogee of German Expressionist cinema in that it was the last pure distillation of the form, in which visual distortion, chiaroscuro, exaggerated staccato acting, and nightmarish atmosphere collectively evoked... Read more... |
Blu-ray: GirlfriendsSunday, 22 November 2020
Director Claudia Weill’s landmark feature debut benefits from Criterion’s high quality re-issue, which was made possible after the American Library of Congress put the movie on the United States National Film Registry for preservation last year.... Read more... |
Leap of Faith review – Alexandre O. Philippe examines ‘The Exorcist’Friday, 20 November 2020
“Films are about the mystery of fate or the mystery of faith,” proclaims director William Friedkin in Alexandre O. Philippe’s latest documentary, Leap of Faith. At 84 years old, Friedkin proves himself to be a master of storytelling, not only behind... Read more... |
Blu-ray: The Painted BirdTuesday, 17 November 2020
Václav Marhoul’s The Painted Bird (Nabarvené ptáče in Czech) comes with a lot of baggage, a critics’ screening at the 2019 Venice Festival punctuated by mass walkouts but finishing with a ten-minute standing ovation. Then there’s the supposedly... Read more... |
No Hard Feelings review - tough-minded yet tenderSaturday, 14 November 2020
Love triangles rarely feel more truthful or more tender than in No Hard Feelings, a beautiful film that announces debut director Faraz Shariat as a filmmaker worth reckoning with. The semi-autobiographical story of a young German-Iranian man's... Read more... |
