The first thing to note about Hou Hsaio-hsien’s dreamlike and vague period drama, Flowers of Shanghai, is just how unhurried it is with plot and pacing. If you are not a fan of slow cinema or don’t like films that are dense and are stray observations on character and mood, […]
Aidan Fatkin
Distant Journey (1949) a nihilistic vision of Nazi persecution (Review)
I was intrigued to hear that Alfréd Radok’s Czech drama, Distant Journey, was one of the first films to depict the horrors of the Holocaust. I was left gobsmacked, though, to hear that the film was released in 1949, only a couple years after the Holocaust ended. For Radok to […]
The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On: A visceral indictment of war (Review)
Picture this. You’re one of a few surviving members of a World War Two Garrison stationed in New Guinea. It’s Japan in the late ‘80s, and you’ve gotten out bed after a horrific nightmare from the trauma of the war. Guilt, shame, and horror fester your mind: you’ve done something […]
Werewolf (2019): Grimmer than the average WWII holocaust drama (Review)
Unlike what the title implies, Adrian Panek’s Werewolf (Wilkolak) isn’t a supernatural horror movie. It’s a cross between a World War Two Holocaust drama by way of Cujo or White Dog. I think what Panek is trying to emphasise with the title that pure evil doesn’t come from something alien, […]
Double Face: A Crime Drama in Giallo Clothing (Review)
I haven’t come across any Gialli films that have bored or frustrated me. Whether it is The Red Queen Kills Seven Times or Blood and Black Lace, they have strong qualities that make each film absorbing. Whether that’s eye-popping colour cinematography, a strong mixture of pulp crime and a central […]
The Woman In The Window: A great Noir that puts one foot wrong (Review)
Fritz Lang needs no introduction. For my money, he was a giant of cinema, on par with Alfred Hitchcock for that matter. And you needn’t look far for proof, the Weimar Republic era of Lang’s work is perhaps one of the finest runs in a director’s career, from Destiny to […]
Dragged Across Concrete: a tense thriller, a hard pill to swallow (Review)
S. Craig Zahler has been a director who I have been banging the drum for since adoring his hybrid horror-western, Bone Tomahawk. Zahler’s hard-knuckled follow-up, Brawl in Cell Block 99, also landed in my Best of the Year list for 2017. As for Zahler’s third outing as director and writer, […]
One, Two, Three (1961): Billy Wilder’s Satirical Greatest Hits
Mad and hectic, One, Two, Three is a Cold War satire that refuses to be one thing – slow. Here you have all the cast bellowing orders to each other like World War Three is on the horizon, the pacing zips by, and André Previn’s lively score blasts the classic […]
The Prisoner (1955) Alec Guinness’s War of the Words (Review)
For my money, Alec Guinness is one of the greatest British character actors of all time. No matter if he was playing the buck-toothed Professor Marcus in The Ladykillers, or the wise and mysterious Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, Guinness always brought elegance, wit, and charm to his performances. Rewind […]
Possum (2018) a bleakness from beyond the dark place (Review)
Part [The] Babadook and part David Lynch fuelled nightmare, Matthew Holness’s directorial debut, Possum, is as bleak and oppressive as psychological horror gets. Unfortunately, I get the impression that Holness would’ve been better suited turning Possum into a portmanteau film rather than a feature of its own. And that’s fine, […]