Opening a review of Eureka’s latest King Hu movie by touching upon film restoration probably isn’t the most winning of writing tactics, yet the Valiant Ones opens with a text card explaining how this print came to be. It’s relevant for us fans of movies from that corner of the […]
Movies & Documentaries
Furiosa: Mad Max (2024) Furthers the Max Max-Verse in Bold and Bombastic Ways (Review)
I had a chance to see Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) in theaters but for whatever reason couldn’t go. I watched it months later, and realized what a terrible mistake I had made. Fast forward about a decade and I was able to see Mad Max: Furiosa (2024) in theaters […]
Merry-Go-Round (1956) The Realism of Love from a Hungarian Classic (Review)
In the booklet accompanying Second Run’s new Blu-Ray release of Zoltán Fábri’s Merry-Go-Round (1956), author and Hungarian cinema specialist John Cunningham highlights a comment made in 1995 by the then French president Francois Mitterand. At the time, a group of filmmakers were working on a commemorative documentary for the centenary […]
Freaks vs the Reich (2021) Delightful High Concept Fantastical Adventure (Review)
After being shown around festivals (including Glasgow Frightfest in 2022), under its original title ‘Freaks Out’, Freaks vs the Reich has finally been released in the UK. Changing the title to something more eye-catching and B-movie like means the film is more likely to reach a wider audience. It can […]
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023) But Do Expect a Lot from This Film (Review)
During a film that reckons with (and is a reckoning for) meme culture, there is an intrusive meme that springs to mind. Imagine a picture of a long-in-the-tooth Jean Luc-Godard with a mournful ‘Died 2022’ hovering over him. Now, next to it, imagine the poster of Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, with a celebratory ‘Born 2023’ above it. A […]
Shinobi Trilogy (1962 – 1963) – A fascinating precursor to Ninjas in cinema (Review)
Released by Daiei Motion Picture Company, Shinobi no Mono was an eight-film series adapted from Tomoyoshi Murayama’s series of novels. Set in 16th century Japan, the story follows outlaw hero and ninja Ishikawa Goemon (Raizō Ichikawa) in his fight against samurai warlords. Radiance Films have collected the first three films […]
Trenque Lauquen (2022) There’s Something Big Happening in Argentina (Review)
There’s something big happening in Argentina – operative word big. El Pampero Cine is a collective who have made an international name for themselves making movies that are experimental, local and personal, yet which shun the modest scale of most films which can be so described. Their most ambitious production […]
Stopmotion (2023) And the Unfulfilled Horror Potential of its Stop-Motion (Review)
I’m sure that the film synopsis for Robert Morgan’s Stopmotion was churned out on a conveyor belt in a factory built especially for making things I will love. Here we have all the basic elements. It’s called, and uses, the medium of stop-motion. Check. It’s a low budget horror that […]
Malum (2023): A Rather (Un)pleasant Surprise
The latest effort from horror filmmaker Anthony DiBlasi, Malum is in effect a reworking of his very own Last Shift from 2014, but “why the remake?” you may ask. Well, first and foremost, it offers the opportunity to up the ante in every department. The story is about the fallout […]
Invaders from Proxima B (2024): Low Budget Schlock with Humour and Heart (Review)
With a name like Invaders from Proxima B, you’d be forgiven for presuming this low-budget effort from writer, director and star Ward Roberts would be chock full of men in green rubber suits, tacky flying saucers and dodgy laser effects. Well, there are certainly variations on those, but the last […]