By the late 1940s, it seemed that Charles Laughton, that great Scarborough-born star of the silver screen, was losing interest in acting. Believing his performances in films like The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Rembrandt (1936) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) were […]
Movies & Documentaries
Merrily We Go to Hell (1932): a devil of a time with a future star (Review)
It was a truism, once, that Hollywood portrayals of alcoholism were glib, comic affairs until Billy Wilder made The Long Weekend. While nothing can take away the quality of Wilder’s film, one of the pleasures of living at this particular moment in history – yes, there are some – is […]
Before Tonight is Over (1965) “Someone Will Die” (Review)
Released to Second Run Blu-ray this week, Peter Solan’s 1965 film Before Tonight is Over is a real hidden gem waiting to be discovered by all like-minded fans of the Czech New Wave movement. It tells the story of an evening in a nightclub in the Slovak mountain resort of […]
Lake Mungo (2008) The Most Hauntingly Real Horror One Of A Kind (Review)
In the incredibly generous extras section of Second Sight’s new release – Lake Mungo, are appreciation videos from Rob Savage (Host) and Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead (indie mainstays). Both open with the same throughline, they were looking for genuinely scary movies beyond the same cliched selection of classics and […]
Over the Edge (1979) Satire, Rawness & an Amazing Rock Soundtrack (Review)
Teenagers have been one of cinema’s great projects: from the 1960s to the 90s, entire waves and genres rose and fell in the attempt to get their bums on seats. From the teen sex comedy, beach and party movies, and the pink eiga, sadly, they are now an audience that […]
The Silence Before Bach (2007) and Mudanza (2008) (Review)
There’s a running bit in Steve Jobs, Danny Boyle’s most irritating film, where the title character repeatedly explains the importance of making phones that are slightly smaller and more functional than other phones by comparing them to major flashpoints in art history – Dylan going electric, say, or the premiere […]
Stalker (2020) What’s in a movie title? (Review)
What’s in a title? Well, for the 2020 indie thriller, Stalker, quite a lot. Just a cursory google will see the film lost under the weight of one of Russian cinema’s most well-regarded sci-fi epics from Andrei Tarkovsky. Then there is Neil Jordan’s 2018 film, Greta, which also goes by […]
Masculin Féminin (1966): further adventures of Jean-Luc Godard (Review)
Criterion have supplied a typically solid set of extras for their UK Blu-Ray release of Jean-Luc Godard’s Masculin Féminin, including archive interviews with star Chantal Goya, appreciation by critic Freddy Buache and footage of Godard directing the film-within-a-film (of which, more later). If you want more, though, Emmanuel Laurent’s 2010 […]
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982); So Fast Even Modern Hollywood Hasn’t Caught Up With it Yet (Review)
Released to Criterion Blu-ray this week is the perennial favourite of the American high school teen comedy, 1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High. A film of debuts – it was the directorial debut of Amy Heckerling, the scriptwriting debut of Cameron Crowe and inevitably launched the careers of many young […]
A Glitch in the Matrix (2021): Room 237 director’s latest labyrinth (Review)
Everyone sees themselves as a hero in their own story. For some people, that’s a romantic lead, for others it’s a little guy against the system. Personally I see myself as a battered but unbowed white knight, who takes up his steed and his shield every time people start egregiously […]