Released to cinemas and Curzon Home on 30th June, To Nowhere is the unflinching feature debut of director Sian Astor-Lewis. A striking blend of arthouse and kitchen sink, this low-budget, crowd-funded British indie explores the coming-of-age travails of two queer teenagers, taking us deep into the heart of their emotionally […]
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 Day of the Jackal. 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 and America's left-leaning news outlet ZNetwork. He is also a regular contributor to the Geek Show's podcasts, including Pop Screen and the Uncut series.
Love Gets a Room (2021): A Holocaust Musical? (Review)
A movie about the Holocaust…but it’s a musical. You’ve got to admit, it takes some cojones to make that movie. Spanish director Rodrigo Cortés obviously believes he has those cojones. The filmmaker resposinble for the challenge of 2010’s claustrophobic, single-setting thriller Buried, steps up now to make Love Gets a […]
La Syndicaliste (2022): A Conspiracy Thriller for the #MeToo World (Review)
Born in Ireland, Maureen Kearney was a trade unionist in France’s former state-owned nuclear company, Areva. Hearing of a contract between Areva and the bourgeoning Chinese nuclear industry from a disgruntled insider at EDF, Kearney grew fearful for the job security of her members and the future of the company […]
Small Slow But Steady (2023): A Tender Character Study of a Hearing-Impaired Female Boxer (Review)
The latest film from Japan’s Shô Miyake, director of 2018’s And Your Bird Can Sing and 2020’s Ju-On: Origins, is Small, Slow But Steady, released to cinemas and Curzon Home Cinema on 30th June. Miyake’s touching movie is a highly original boxing drama inspired by the autobiographical book Makenaide!, the […]
Fists in the Pocket (1965): A Disquieting, Macabre Satire of Family Values and Catholic Morality (Review)
Released to Criterion this week is a film that caused shock and outrage in its native Italy upon its release in 1965. Marco Bellocchio’s feature debut Fists in the Pocket is a disquieting, macabre and unique work that seemed designed to ruffle a few feathers, not only in its desire […]
Wanda (1970) A Glimpse of the Real New Hollywood? (Review)
April 17th sees the release to the Criterion Collection of Wanda, the first and only feature film from Barbara Loden, actor and wife of Elia Kazan. A landmark in US cinema’s independent movement, Wanda is set in the unglamorous sooty surroundings of eastern Pennsylvania’s industrial heartlands and features a central […]
Married to the Mob (1988) Jonathan Demme’s Wise Guy Screwball Farce (Review)
Radiance Films continues an impressive run in its debut year with a new 2K restoration release of Jonathan Demme’s hit 1988 farce Married to the Mob, the movie that launched Michelle Pfeiffer’s star into its bright ascendency. Pfeiffer stars as Angela de Marco, a young Long Island housewife whose unfaithful […]
This World Is Not My Own (SXSW 2023) (Review)
Receiving its world premiere at the SXSW festival this week is This World Is Not My Own, a film about a remarkable artist you’ve probably never heard of, yet by the time the credits roll she may well become a new favourite. Nellie Mae Rowe was born on the 4th […]
Letter to the Postman (2022) & Questions to the Filmmaker
In the final days of 2022, I happened upon an intriguing sixty-minute low-budget film. Entitled Letters to the Postman, it is an adaptation by British indie filmmaker Felix Dembinski of a short story by Robert Aickman which appeared in the author’s 1980 anthology Intrusions and proved to be his final […]
Linie 1 (1988): All Aboard for a German New Wave Musical (Review)
Your attention, please. The Blu-ray now arriving on this platform is the Studio Canal Cult Classics release of Linie 1, Reinhard Hauff’s 1988 big-screen adaptation of Germany’s second-most successful musical after Brecht’s Threepenny Opera. Linie 1 tells the story of Sunnie (Inka Victoria Goetschel), a young woman who, having learnt […]