It was fifty years ago today… On Sunday 8th July, cinemas up and down the land screened the Beatles animated musical fantasy Yellow Submarine to mark the 50th anniversary of its release in July, 1968. Remastered and restored for the celebration (for the first time since the thirtieth anniversary in 1998) […]
Musical
House (1977) Completely within its own erratic, mesmerising orbit (Review)
There’s a tiresome tendency among Westerners to squeal “wtf japan lol” every time a Japanese film exhibits a minor eccentricity, but sometimes you have to acknowledge a film is very strange. That’s the case with 1977’s House, now released on Blu-Ray by Eureka Masters of Cinema. House was a massive hit […]
Carmen Jones (1954) Influential Black Musical with a weird relationship to race (Review)
Absolute Beginners (1986) More than meets the eye with added David Bowie (Review)
Alongside The Mission and Revolution, Absolute Beginners was accused of destroying the British film industry in the mid to late 1980s. It was bad luck for Goldcrest, the studio behind Julian Temple’s lavish production, as they backed-up all three films, released them at nearly the same time, and in turn, […]
Expresso Bongo (1959) Cliff Richard in pre-swinging London Rock N’ Roll Musical (Review)
Let us imagine the pitch: a hotshot young writer and a director whose career spans groundbreaking horror, gritty drama and sexploitation decide to make a musical. But not just any musical – this would be a musical powered by stage performances, rather than the familiar contrivance of people bursting into […]
Ruined Heart: Another Love Story Between A Criminal & A Whore (2016)(Review)
Philippine director Khavn De La Cruz collaborates with Wong-Kar Wai alumni DP Christopher Doyle for Third Windows latest in an exceptionally difficult film to pigeon-hole due to its outright evasion of genre convention. On its surface, Ruined Heart: Another Love Story Between a Criminal & a Whore is a musical […]
Tokyo Tribe (2014) Part Manga Movie Part Inspired, One-of-a-Kind Hip-Hopera (Review)
Nashville (1975) Altman at his very best provided you like Country Music (Review)
On the sheer scale of the venture, thinking of this release of Robert Altman’s Nashville as nothing shy of towering would be a gross underestimation. The vague narrative has 24 characters and an hour of uninterrupted musical numbers. Across many concerts and gigs, country musicians navigate a hectic week competing […]
Phantom of the Paradise (1974): De Palma’s Phantasmagorical Rock-Opera-Horror (Review)
For Love’s Sake: Takashi Miike’s Ultimate High School Musical (Review)
As a director, Takashi Miike is impossible to define beyond his boundless productivity. Yakuza, musicals, superheroes, children friendly, gore, taboo baiting, samurai, horror, video game adaptations, these are well within Miike’s wheelhouse, there are few people in the world as outright eccentric. His latest to see release in the UK […]