Released to Criterion this week is Umberto D., Vittorio De Sica’s classic film about a pensioner who struggles to make ends meet in an economically-ravaged Italy in the post-war years. A retired civil servant, the ageing Umberto is determined to keep his dignity as he navigates a series of challenges […]
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.
Desire (1958)/All My Good Countrymen (1968); Two Films by Vojtěch Jasný (Review)
Second Run are really spoiling us this week. This two-disc release may claim to be ‘Two films by Vojtěch Jasný, but it is in fact four; alongside the main features, 1958’s Desire (Touha, in its native Czech) and All My Good Countrymen (aka Všichni dobří rodáci) from a decade later, […]
Manifesto (2022) Forlorn yet unbowed (Cinema Review)
Manifesto, currently doing the rounds in selected cinemas, is the final instalment in the Hope Trilogy from Liverpudlian director Daniel Draper. The previous films in this series included the Dennis Skinner documentary Nature of the Beast and The Big Meeting, a documentary about the Durham Miners Gala. Slotted neatly in […]
True Things (2021) Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places (Blu-ray Review)
Director Harry Wootliff’s new film, released to Blu-ray this week by Picturehouse Entertainment is True Things, an adaptation of the acclaimed 2010 novel by Deborah Kay Davies, True Things About Me. It stars Ruth Wilson (who is also on producing duties with fellow thesp Jude Law) and Tom Burke and […]
Kill Them All and Come Back Alone (1968): The Dirty Half-Dozen of the Spaghetti Western (Review)
Released to Blu-ray on Studio Canal’s Cult Classics label comes a rip-roaring Spaghetti Western from 1968, Enzo G. Castellari’s wonderfully titled Kill Them All and Come Back Alone starring Chuck Connors, the rangy former basketball and baseball player and star of popular Western TV serials The Rifleman and Branded and […]
Wild Things (1998) 90s Hollywood or Hollyoaks Later? (Review)
It’s really strange coming to a piece of pop culture from your youth for the first time almost twenty-five years after its moment in the spotlight, but that’s exactly what I have done with Wild Things, released to Blu-ray by Arrow this week. I’m not entirely sure why this torrid, […]
Nobody Loves You and You Don’t Deserve to Exist (2022) A Pilgrim’s Progress from Thatcher to Covid (Review)
Adding to the mounting list of films reflecting our collective experience of coronavirus in the last two years comes the bluntly titled Nobody Loves You and You Don’t Deserve to Exist. Obviously, the thought of a film centred around COVID-19 is bound to turn off some audiences, so let me […]
Revolver (1973) Hard-edged, Pessimistic, Buddy Cop Crime Thriller (Review)
Current wisdom in the literary world of the thriller genre is that you must immediately hook your reader in with some violence right from the first page. After that, you can focus on character, setting etc, but the bloody stuff has to be placed right up front. Released to Blu-ray […]
Coach to Vienna (1966) Defying the Perceived Wisdoms of WWII (Review)
Another day, another release from Second Run of a Czech film that fell foul of the authorities as the optimism of the Prague Spring gave way to the reassertion of Soviet control and the period of normalisation that took a hold of the country until the eventual collapse of the […]
A Time for Dying (1969) Audie Murphy’s Last Stand (Review)
Here’s a curio released by Indicator Powerhouse this week, the final film of both director Bud Boetticher and star Audie Murphy, A Time for Dying was made in 1969 but didn’t actually receive a cinema release until 1982, having been tied up with litigation in the intervening thirteen years. This […]