The Black Country born photographer and artist Richard Billingham first came to fame in the mid to late 1990s, when his award-winning photographic collection of his working-class parents formed part of Charles Saatchi’s YBA exhibition, ‘Sensation’. At the height of what was known as ‘Cool Britannia’, Billingham’s uncompromising look to the […]
Mark Cunliffe
Senior Contributor Mark's first cinematic experience was watching the Cannon and Ball vehicle, The Boys in Blue. He hasn't looked back since. Hailing from Lancashire, he is an occasional contributor to Arrow DVD, writing booklet inlay essays on a variety of titles, including Children of Men and The Great Escape. He has also written a chapter for Ste Brotherstone and Dave Lawrence's book, Scarred For Life Vol II. He is often found on Letterboxd, has appeared on the Talking Pictures podcast and also writes for We Are Cult, Horrified, America's left-leaning news outlet ZNetwork, and the fanzine Undefined Boundary: The Journal of Psychick Albion. He is also a regular contributor to the Geek Show's podcasts, including Pop Screen and the Uncut series.
Sink the Bismarck! (1960) A British Stiff-Upper Lip Vision of Heroism (Review)
Directed by Lewis Gilbert, the 1960 film Sink the Bismarck! tells the true-life story of the Royal Navy’s mission to track down and destroy the eponymous pride of the German fleet and scourge of Atlantic shipping. Making it’s UK Blu-ray debut on the Eureka Classics label, it’s a distinctive film […]
Georgy Girl (1966) the good, bad and ugly of Swinging 60’s London (Review)
‘Georgy Girl Is Big!’ so screamed the tagline on the posters of Silvio Narizzano’s 1966 swinging London set film. It had two meanings of course and the first was to imply the nature of its central character Georgy; an ungainly selfless young woman, big of frame and of heart, played […]
The Blood Of Hussain (1980) a mesmerising piece of cinema (Review)
Jamil Dehlavi’s The Blood of Hussain is an allegorical tale of revolt against tyranny and oppression in 1970s Pakistan. It takes place during the annual mourning procession for Hussain, grandson of the prophet Muhammad, who was slain for his refusal to recognise Yazid ibn Muawiya, the Umayyad Caliph, as his leader […]
A Prayer Before Dawn (2017) a brutal show of a young actor’s anonymity (Review)
When Liverpudlian Billy Moore travelled to Thailand in 2005 it was with a making view to a fresh start away from the life of crime that had led him to various prison sentences and a crippling drug addiction. Initially, it seemed to work. By day he secured jobs that ranged from […]
The Comfort of Strangers (1990) High-Art Horror? Erotica Thriller? or Both? (Review)
Paul Schrader’s 1990 film, The Comfort of Strangers, is an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s 1981 novel of the same name and boasts a screenplay by Harold Pinter. It tells the story of an attractive, middle-class British couple named Mary and Colin (Natasha Richardson and Rupert Everett) who have arrived in […]
Last Year at Marienbad (1961) … and the mystery of movie watching (Review)
Alan Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad is a film that poses many questions and offers very little answers. Having watched it, it seems only fitting therefore that I’m left with a question of my own (well two if you include ‘can I write a review about it without sounding pretentious?’) and […]
Salvador (1986) Fear & Loathing in Central America (Review)
Between 1980 and 1992, El Salvador was ravaged by a civil war between left-wing guerrilla groups and a right-wing military administration supported by the US government of the newly elected president, Ronald Reagan. Fearful that left-wing prominence would ensure the spread of Communism into North America, Reaganite foreign policy sanctioned […]
How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2018) less “Croydon, 1977” and more “Instagram, 1977” (Review)
“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” Thus said Johnny Rotten in January, 1978 at the conclusion of the Sex Pistols’ one and only US tour. A weary, wounded rhetorical question that served as the condemnation from within of the punk movement. Three days later and the band were no more. […]
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018) a must for period drama fans, an easy skip for everyone else (Review)
Based on the bestselling 2008 novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society stars Lily James as Juliet Ashton, a free-spirited young woman in immediate post-war London who seems to have the world at her feet, thanks to her penning a bestselling book […]