Like an unshaded light bulb, Martin Scorsese’s 1980 classic shines an uncomfortably bright light that casts shadows as stark as what it exposes. What is exposed is the soul of Jake LaMotta, middleweight boxer of the 1940s and 50s, night club entertainer of the 1960s, and an abusive, violent and […]
Vincent Gaine
Peter Five Eight (2024) An Attempt was Made by Spacey (Review)
Film noir casts a long (dark) shadow over cinema. Since French critics retroactively applied the term to crime films of the 1940s, filmmakers across the world and through the decades have attempted to emulate and update the look and feel of what was never designed as a coherent genre. From […]
The Origin of Evil (2022) Two Thirds of a Fascinating Familial Thriller (Review)
We open with a steady tracking shot that moves through a room of women changing, until the camera settles on one of them. From this deliberate opening, director Sébastien Marnier maintains a careful delivery of information, guiding the viewer through a handsomely staged and often twisty thriller. These twists and reveals make […]
Glasgow FrightFest 2024 (In Capsule)
FrightFest, the UK’s premier festival for horror films, takes place three times during the year. Two of these take place in London, the main festival in August and another over Halloween. But before these, the Glasgow Film Theatre plays host to FrightFest for a weekend in March. This year, The […]
Dune Part Two (2024) Powerful Blockbuster Storytelling that leaves you wanting more (Review)
There is a moment in Dune Part Two when Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) is captured in long shot using a device to create a thumping sound. Tiny against the expanse of the desert, his actions nonetheless create expanding ripples. This is a microcosm of the film as a whole, as […]
Mudbound (2017) The Unspoken Face of The American Experience (Review)
Mudbound is a lot of things. Adapted from Hillary Jordan’s novel by co-writers Dee Rees and Virgil Williams and directed by Rees, it is a tale of two families who face challenges that are comparable yet very different. These differences constitute the racial relations and tensions of Mississippi in the […]
Inside (2007) Body Horror, French Extremity-Style (Review)
New French extremity holds an important place in film history and for film fans. From Baise-Moi to Martyrs to Irreversible and Raw, this movement of boundary-pushing cinema is characterised by aggressive style, graphic violence and somewhat depraved presentations of humanity. Amelie, this ain’t. Inside from 2007 more than lives up […]
Thelma & Louise (1991) Ridley Scott’s Mythic Modern American Classic (Review)
Since its original release in 1991, Thelma & Louise has become a classic and a frequently revisited and referenced one at that. A shorthand for ‘feminist film’, ‘film about women’, ‘female friendship’, ‘women who don’t need men’ and more, it is also something of an oddity in the career of […]
Carlito’s Way (1993) Deserves a Spot in the Pantheon of Crime Classics (Review)
“The street is watching” is a weighty and ominous line that conveys paranoia and trepidation, as well as knowledge of one’s surroundings, and it’s a line that echoes throughout Carlito’s Way, a fine example of one of the oldest and most American of film genres – the crime movie. When […]
The Ginger Snaps Trilogy (2000-2004) Important piece of Disruptive Art, vital as Teen Horror icon (Review)
Somewhere between the meta-cinematic knowingness of Scream and the self-contained irony of Jennifer’s Body sits Ginger Snaps, a smart, sassy, trilogy of teenage girls dealing with lycanthropy. Or are they really dealing with teenage problems? Menstruation and other signs of puberty; sexuality and relationships; addiction and self-harm; colonialism and manifest […]