The hulking figure of Tom Noonan casts a deceptive shadow. The gangly character actor who found fame in films by Michaels Cimino and Mann (most notably the latter in Manhunter) is a distinctive yet understated presence, sizing up at an impressive 6ft 5in and possessing some memorably melancholy eyes; even from […]
Movies & Documentaries
Paddington in Peru (2024) A Fun Adventure That Can’t Escape the Shadow of Its Predecessors
The third Paddington film, Paddington in Peru, faced a few complications before even arriving in theaters. The director of the first two films, Paul King, was unable to return due to commitments to Wonka (2023), leaving a comparitively inexperienced Dougal Wilson to fill in with directorial duties. Additionally, Sally Hawkins, […]
Play It Cool (1970): walking the fine line between melodrama and exploitation
The picaresque structure, in which a roguish but sympathetic hero moves through an episodic plot usually set in a criminal underworld, was used in early landmark novels like Don Quixote and Moll Flanders. It’s now used more in pornography than serious literature, but if that’s a fall from grace no-one […]
Drugstore Cowboy (1989) A Cool and Contemplative Study of Addiction
Drugstore Cowboy, Gus Van Sant’s second feature, is released as a dual Blu-Ray and UHD by the Criterion Collection this week. A great success on its release back in 1989, the film is widely regarded as reviving the career of Matt Dillon, who takes the lead here as the charismatic, […]
The Birthday (2004) Farcical Doomsday Celebration Twenty Years Late to the Party
Last year I reviewed the Russell Crowe-helmed The Exorcism, a film I made a big deal out of for being filmed all the way back in 2019, only to be pushed out a whole five years later in 2024. Well, that seems mighty quaint now compared to the curious case […]
Dressed to Kill (1980) Dressed to Thrill, or Dressed to Disappoint?
Brian De Palma has garnered significant levels of criticism for being sexist over the years, and this is at its most relevant in the ways he likes to film women in the shower, as seen in the opening of both Carrie and Dressed to Kill, De Palma also includes shower […]
The Terminal Man (1974) Alienation and Loss of Identity in Los Angeles
When David Lynch recently passed away, I ended up reflecting on my High School Film Studies teacher who introduced me to Mulholland Drive (2001) and sent me down the rabbit hole. That class was life-changing, a crash course in film history, where he had the freedom to draw out some […]
Bushido (2024) (Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2025)
The two and half millennia-old board game Go plays a pivotal role in this sprawling jidaigeki drama from Japan. The story concerns an array of characters living in a civilised town during Japan’s Edo period (between 1600 and mid-1800s), but the central relationship follows Yanagida (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi), a mysterious former […]
Doctor Vampire (1990) Hong Kong’s Wild, Goofy Take on the Western Bloodsucker
Whilst there is a long list of Chinese and Hong Kong “Vampire” movies, this would usually conjure up images of hopping blood suckers attacking our fighting heroes in an attempt to rid them of their lives, a la Mr Vampire (1985) which sees our Taoist priest Lam Ching Ying and […]
Memoir Of A Snail (2024): The Best Stop-Motion Film Since Coraline – Yes, Really
For as much as several stop-motion films are among my favourite films of all time, I always have to pinch myself whenever I get to see a new one. I’m still by no means a connoisseur of the medium but damn if I don’t treasure the opportunity to see people […]