Released on Blu-ray this week via the Criterion label comes arguably the best war, or rather anti-war film, you’ve never seen. What’s that at the back? You’ve seen Melville’s Army of Shadows already? Well that’s OK, because I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about Larisa Shepitko’s stunning 1977 Golden […]
Movies & Documentaries
Charade (1963) one perfect story-telling machine (Review)
For a decade which produced some of the most enduring, beloved hits in American cinema history – everything from The Sound of Music to Psycho – it can be hard to love 1960s Hollywood in toto. The Golden Age was over, the 1970s New Hollywood was yet to be born, […]
The Owners (2020) A very British home invasion horror movie (Review)
Sick of his dead-end life, a young man called Nathan teams up with his friend Terry to burgle a local doctor’s house whilst the doctor, Richard Huggins, and his wife, Ellen, are away. Terry’s mum works as a cleaner there, and has told him that there’s a safe. They will […]
Rams (2020): not quite the GOAT, but a touching shaggy sheep story (Review)
Hollywood’s voracious consumption of other countries’ IP has made it easy to identify when a film has been Americanised, but what do we expect when a film transfers from Iceland to Australia? Grímur Hákonarson’s 2015 film Rams was voted the second-best Icelandic film of all time by the Icelandic website […]
Saint Maud (2019) the incredible morphing empathy of psychological seaside horror (Review)
If you walk down the DVD aisle of your local supermarket, it’ll become unavoidably apparent how weak the modern British Horror scene is. Gone are the stalwarts of Amicus and Hammer, and in their place is an ocean of low-budget identikit slashers/demon in the woods films. Surprise it is then […]
Synchronic (2019) Some of Benson & Moorhead’s best work (Review)
Since they announced their arrival with a bang in 2012 with Resolution, Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson have been two of the more captivating talents on the independent genre circuit. They followed that up with Spring and Resolution quasi-sequel, The Endless. In 2021 (debuting in America in 2019), the director […]
Tomorrow I’ll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea(1977) A fantastic, vicious attack on the modern age of serious science fiction (Review)
Opening with a blend of orchestral beauty and vague pangs of Kool & The Gang, Tomorrow I’ll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea, from director Jindřich Polák, shows off its frivolous, light-hearted antics immediately. Pairing this high quality, era-defining funk with reversed and repetitive footage of soulless vermin Adolf Hitler, the […]
12 Hour Shift (2020) Another Bettis Star Turn (Review)
Frightfest Presents returns in 2021 to release a smaller title that played a previous Festival, this time it’s the turn of actor/sophomore director, Brea Grant and her Crime Thriller/Comedy Horror, 12 Hour Shift. Grant made her name as an actor who works within the American indie horror scene, a highlight, […]
Rolling Thunder Revue (2019) One for the Martin Scorsese & Bob Dylan completists (Review)
Having one of the greatest film directors of all time engage with a titillating period from one of the greatest musicians to have ever lived is quite a remarkable premise. Such a meeting of great minds should bring about moving and influential art, musing on the highs and lows of […]
A Rainy Day in New York (2019): and a grim day for Woody Allen fans (Review)
You might have missed it, but A Rainy Day in New York briefly became the first Woody Allen film to hit number one at the global box office. This is, admittedly, because it was May 2020 and nothing else was out – a strong showing in South Korea was enough […]