Without doubt the greatest film ever made about a triangle player in a symphony orchestra, Second Run’s Blu-Ray release of The Barnabáš Kos Case sees them returning to the work of the Slovakian director Peter Solan. Previously, they’d released the other film the busy director made in 1965, Before Tonight […]
Movies & Documentaries
What Happened Was… (1994) Worst first date ever, or worst date EVER?
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 […]
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 […]
House Of Ashes (Glasgow Frightfest 2025)
It never ceases to amaze me how genre cinema can adapt itself to anything. From sociopolitical melodrama to generations divided, whether it be Science Fiction or Horror, there are reasons why so many of us are drawn off the beaten path and into the spooky woods of the cinematic landscape. […]
Psyche (Glasgow Frightfest 2025)
Take Alex Garland’s Annihilation with a smidgen of the budget and far fewer trees. Blend this with Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal and filter the result through Terrence Malick. That is a reductive description of Psyche, a discordant but striking journey through landscapes and mindscapes alike that received its UK […]