Film
Miss Juneteenth review - a ray of Texan sunshineFriday, 25 September 2020
Beauty queen pageants have long been ripe for parody, from their plastic glamour to the Machiavellian competitiveness. Miss Juneteenth opts for a much more nuanced approach, using the pageant as a focal point for a mother and daughter navigating... Read more... |
Monsoon review - like something almost being saidThursday, 24 September 2020
Building very promisingly on the achievement of his debut feature Lilting from six years ago, in Monsoon Hong Khaou has crafted a delicate study of displacement and loss, one that’s all the more memorable for being understated. Cultural... Read more... |
Enola Holmes review – a new Sherlock-related franchise is afootWednesday, 23 September 2020
It’s no secret that Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous creation lays claim to more appearances on screen than any other fictional character. Over the past several decades, we’ve seen Sherlock as a pugilist action-hero, a modern-day sleuth, and in a... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: MademoiselleTuesday, 22 September 2020
Mademoiselle is Jeanne Moreau, in smouldering femme fatale mode: a school-teacher and town hall secretary in a small French village, she wreaks havoc by setting fire to barns, poisoning cattle and unleashing flood waters in a farm yard full of... Read more... |
White Riot review - energetic documentary races through the history of Rock Against RacismMonday, 21 September 2020
This documentary about the 1970s activist movement Rock Against Racism comes with festival prizes and much acclaim. It’s certainly a nostalgic feast for those old enough to remember when punk and reggae musicians were purposely united and it’s a... Read more... |
Blu-ray: This Gun for HireSunday, 20 September 2020
The 1942 thriller This Gun for Hire, which opened five months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, was closely adapted from Graham Greene’s 1936 novel A Gun for Sale by Albert Maltz and W.R. Burnett and directed for Paramount by... Read more... |
Bill & Ted Face the Music review - modestly delightfulSaturday, 19 September 2020
Beavis and Butthead’s vicious grunge-era gormlessness remains interred, Wayne and Garth (and their stars’ careers) are too superannuated to revive. But here are the slightest of Gen X’s idiot double-acts, back again to save the universe in a time-... Read more... |
Hendrix and the Spook review - a search for clarity in murky watersSaturday, 19 September 2020
September 18th is the 50th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s death, an appropriate moment to release Hendrix and the Spook, a documentary exploring the vexed question: was it murder, suicide or a tragic accident? Trying to unravel this conundrum,... Read more... |
Nocturnal review - an impossible loveFriday, 18 September 2020
The most painterly and ominous sequence in Nocturnal naturally occurs at night. Until recently strangers, 33-year-old Pete (Cosmo Jarvis) and 17-year-old Laurie (Lauren Coe) gaze across a body of seawater to a miniature chemistry set – a tract of... Read more... |
Rocks review - impressively well-crafted neo-realist dramaThursday, 17 September 2020
Rocks is a beautifully made slice of neo-realist filmmaking which deserves to get a wide audience but may well slip off the radar in the current climate. It really should be experienced in a cinema as the camerawork by Hélène Louvart is stunning and... Read more... |
The Devil All The Time review – a test of faith in a Southern Gothic traditionThursday, 17 September 2020
There’s no denying the Faulknerian ambition to the construction of Anthony Campos’ latest feature Devil All the Time. It’s a brooding, blood-soaked Semi-Southern Gothic drama spanning two generations through a plot that wrestles with the nature of... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: Where Does a Body End?Tuesday, 15 September 2020
Michael Gira, Swans’ band leader and last remaining original member, has a reputation for being an intense and difficult individual who doesn’t compromise easily. This is illustrated by the band having been home to some 35 different musicians since... Read more... |
