Once upon a time, it was instantly apparent when a film was based on a comic or graphic novel as those films concerned themselves with the super-powered and the otherworldly, then around the mid-1990s there was a paradigm shift and the nature of these titles became indistinguishable from the more […]
Movies & Documentaries
Daughters of the Dust (1991) recalls Tarkovsky, Resnais or any other sanctified European arthouse auteur you might care to name (Review)
Julie Dash’s debut film turned 25 last year, but even without the anniversary, this sumptuous BFI restoration would still probably exist. In the late 2010s, the film has become more relevant than ever. It is an inspiration for a new generation of African-American directors – Ava DuVernay has repeatedly cited […]
Stockholm, My Love (2016) The audacity that marks out the best documentary-fiction hybrids is missing (Review)
It’s not unknown for film directors to start their career as critics, but Mark Cousins is one of the rare breed who practice both disciplines at the same time. As such, it can be hard to avoid looking for connections, seeing the criticism and films as the left hemisphere and […]
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) Dario Argento as the complete article (Review)
While far from the most prolific in the sub-genre, Dario Argento is synonymous with the Giallo. His directorial debut, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, counts among the most acclaimed and beloved movies in the cycle – also, it is credited as popularising the style across the world. The man […]
Ip Man: The Final Fight (2013) Too many plots spoil this non-action kung fu broth (Review)
Folk Heroes are such huge figures of Chinese culture that to western eyes it may look like the milking of a particularly bounteous cash cow, look at Wong Fei Hung & Fong Sai-Yuk – between them we are looking at hundreds of titles. Both of those figures date back hundreds […]
Minute Bodies: The Intimate World of F. Percy Smith (2016) it’s a tribute to life, in all its messy glory (Review)
Now here’s a real curio, and one you might be utterly beguiled by. Minute Bodies is a compilation of work by the British biologist and pioneering filmmaker F. Percy Smith and his colleague and editor Mary Field. Smith was quite a celebrity in his day, cultivating an eccentric domestic-boffin image […]
Graduation (2016) a cinematically damning indictment of Romanian society in three well-versed acts (Review)
Despite some questionable actions, it’s hard not to feel sorry for Adrian Titieni’s Dr Romeo Aldea in award-winning director Cristian Mungiu’s film Graduation (or Bacalaureat as it is known in its native Romania); weighed down by middle age and with only his good reputation to comfort him and measure his success by, […]
Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans (2017) For fans of Formula One and “the King of Cool” (Review)
If you read the stories surrounding the production of the film Le Mans, the ill-fated Steve McQueen racing passion project, then it sounds like the production of Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Both films went massively over budget and over schedule, accidents occurred, cast and crew members dropped out by the day etc. But […]
Spotlight on a Murderer (1961) An anti-murder mystery from a famed French Surrealist (Review)
Whether it’s Agatha Christie or the likes of Law & Order and NCIS commanding TV schedules today, the murder mystery is one of the dominant genres in narrative media. Literally, every conceivable police department has been imagined in every major city, then there are the do-gooders who do a bit […]
Mulholland Drive (2001) It’s no wonder David Lynch’s work inspires such devotion (Review)
“Nah, you’re not thinkin’. You’re too busy being a smart-alec to be thinkin’” The Cowboy If you’ve never seen David Lynch’s 2001 Cannes Best Director winner Mulholland Drive, it’s probably worth stopping reading and buying Studio Canal’s new Blu-Ray restoration right now. That’s normally the kind of recommendation critics save […]