Released to Blu-ray this week by Studio Canal’s Vintage Classics label is the feature that effectively gave birth to the British film industry’s New Wave period of the 1960s, Jack Clayton’s 1959 movie Room at the Top, starring Laurence Harvey and Simone Signoret. The opening shot of Harvey’s threadbare socks […]
Movies & Documentaries
The Roaring Twenties (1939) How Systemic Failure Created a Gangster (Review)
Criterion’s stunning UHD Blu-Ray release of The Roaring Twenties allows audiences to rediscover a film that marked the end of the golden age of gangster films. Made in 1939, long after the success of Little Caesar (1931), Public Enemy (1931), and Scarface (1932), Raoul Walsh’s film is a fascinating, nostalgic […]
Dogman (2023) Character actor gets plenty to chew on in strange shaggy dog story (Review)
There are many enticing puns a film like Dogman can provoke. The waft of a “dog’s dinner” is a tempting angle to take if the film is a complete mess, and if it’s just plain poor, a reviewer could do a This is Spinal Tap-style Shark Sandwich/”Shit Sandwich” quip and […]
One Percenter (2023): Japanese Fall Guy delivers eighty-five minutes of mayhem (Review)
For some people, films about film-making are insufferable exercises in navel-gazing, nothing more than a way for self-absorbed artistes to force us to experience their creative angst. Yet there is a long history of this kind of meta-film within that least pretentious of genres, action. There’s a pretty simple reason […]
Padre Pio (2022) Hollywood pariah plays pious friar in pandering prayer for pity (Review)
Tales of redemption can come in many forms. The Bible is full of them, from Noah to Moses, depicting flawed individuals picking themselves up and striding into the divine light of the Lord. Hollywood redemption stories are a different kettle of fish. Since 2017, the culture has changed, and victims […]
Tropic (2022) Sci-Fi as a deeply personal take on Male Pride (Review)
There can be no avoiding weeks like this – weeks where other movies run in fear of the magnitude of the big release of the week, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Part Two. However, there is also something sly about weeks like this, as you can find counter-programming, antidotes to the magnetism […]
Dune Part Two (2024) Powerful Blockbuster Storytelling that leaves you wanting more (Review)
There is a moment in Dune Part Two when Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) is captured in long shot using a device to create a thumping sound. Tiny against the expanse of the desert, his actions nonetheless create expanding ripples. This is a microcosm of the film as a whole, as […]
Yakuza Wolf I & II (1972) A Snapshot of a World long gone, Oozing Cool (Review)
TOEI were at their height of their Yakuza related movie output when the early 70s came around. They also had arguably the biggest star on the block in Shinichi “Sonny” Chiba, star power that was only matched by his vast output (37 acting credits across TV and Film between 1970 […]
Deliver Us (2024): Antichrist horror sacrifices ambiguity for shock (Review)
I’m no expert on religious horror films, so it’s hard for me to gauge if there’s been a recent resurgence or there’s just a consistent stream of them. Either way, Lee Roy Kunz & Cru Ennis’s Deliver Us comes out in a relatively crowded market, though with recent blockbusters like […]
By A Man’s Face You Shall Know Him (1966) Harmony, Yakuza and the Rediscovery of Tai Kato (Review)
I’ve previously written at length about the joy of discovering new films and filmmakers through Radiance Films — one of which was I, The Executioner (1968), a brutal neo noir which introduced me to Akira Kurasawa’s former apprentice Tai Kato. Radiance are clearly passionate about restoring and celebrating his work, […]