Thanks to sites like Vimeo and YouTube, it’s now easier to see short films than it has been since the days of the supporting feature. In between, the only shorts that were widely distributed were ones by notable directors, as was the case with Scorsese x 4, a VHS compilation […]
Blu Ray
The Vanishing (1988): Performance-driven 1980’s Psychodrama hits hard (Review)
Not only a stark reminder of why I don’t like going on holiday, but The Vanishing also provides a tightly wound adaptation of a book I haven’t read. My aversion to reading Tim Krabbé’s apparently excellent The Golden Egg and holiday making aside, The Vanishing is arguably the most popular directed piece from one George Sluizer, who you […]
Husbands (1970): Hard Going, But Intentionally So (Review)
The Specialists (1969) Eccentric French Spaghetti Western Grime (Review)
Kwaidan: The King of the J-Horror (Review)
The Strange One: Homoeroticism, Hazing and the Hays Code (Review)
Rio Grande: John Ford’s Comfortable West (Review)
Rounding off any trilogy is no easy feat for any director, producer or star. Although John Ford’s inadvertent and seemingly accidental triumph through his Cavalry trilogy isn’t connected through the storylines, the characters and expected interactions of the genre are built up in equally vivid and cold ways in previous […]
Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain: Surrender to the Phantasmagorical Wonder (Review)
Curling: grips in ways a standard Hollywood thriller can’t manage (Review)
So do Second Run have some kind of insider knowledge, or…? Their first all-new release of 2020 (after a welcome Blu-Ray upgrade for Valerie and Her Week of Wonders) is Denis Côté’s Curling, a spare, paranoid film about self-isolation, home-schooling and precarious minimum-wage jobs. A rare chance for British audiences […]