The explosion of extremity in French genre films from the noughties was a force to be reckoned with. Essentially redefining what on-screen nastiness was, such sights hadn’t been seen since the heyday of Lucio Fulci. Filmmakers like Gaspar Noé (Irreversible) and Alexandre Aja (Switchblade Romance) have evolved out of this […]
Movies & Documentaries
Cosa Nostra (1968-1975): A Trilogy of Corruption, Italian Style (Review)
Radiance Films celebrate a remarkable trilogy of films from renowned Italian director Damiano Damiani (of 1966’s A Bullet for the General fame) and arguably the country’s most celebrated male star, Franco Nero, with their Cosa Nostra boxset released today. In the postwar period, Italian cinema led the way with their […]
Baby Brother (2023) Impressive Micro-Budget Liverpool Indie (Review)
Possibly coming to a film festival near you this year is Baby Brother, a remarkable feature debut from Michael J Long. It tells the story of two siblings, Adam and his kid brother Liam, across two separate days, five years apart, and if you do get the chance to see […]
John Wick 4 (Review) Baba Yaga Will Live Forever (Review)
While still having a large price on his head, John Wick travels the globe, looking for his ultimate out and taking his fight directly to the High Table. When the first John Wick hit our screens back in 2014, the premise was simple: Man loses wife, gets dog, gangsters kill […]
Hiruko the Goblin (1991): A Uniquely Wild Fantasy Horror (Review)
Third Window continue their gradual releasing of director Shinya Tsukamoto’s filmography with his early feature known as Hiruko the Goblin overseas and Yokai Hunter: Hiruko in Japan, after the manga series of which two stories are adapted. Released in between the first two Tetsuo films that first made his name, […]
Golgo 13 (1973) Ken Takakura at his Effortless Best (Review)
When Takao Saito’s manga creation of the worlds deadliest assassin, Golgo 13, was first optioned by Toei Studios he had but two caveats. The first was that the entire film should be shot on location, and the second was that the actor that the character was based upon should be […]
O.C. and Stiggs (1987): What Did I Just Watch? (Review)
Radiance continues its run of unearthing movies that have spent too long neglected and in the shadows. What is usually the case with Radiance, is that these movies are European, foreign language productions. Not so this week, were they have dusted down two Hollywood movies from a rightly much acclaimed […]
The Katsuhito Ishii Collection (1995-2022) (Review)
Anyone with an interest in Japanese culture in the mid to late Noughties had heard the stories of these mad films coming out of Japan. There was the one with the weird babies and the other that had a huge head in the garden. It would transpire that the first […]
The Iron Prefect (1977): Giuliano Gemma Cleans Up Sicily (Review)
This week’s release from Radiance is Pasquele Squitieri’s 1977 movie Il Prefetto di Ferro, alternatively known as both The Iron Prefect and I Am the Law in English speaking territories. Fans of Italian genre cinema take note, Radiance offers this up as a delicious primer ahead of their epic Cosa […]
Sleep (2020): An Elusive Waking Dream from the heartland of Germany (Review)
Arrow’s release of Sleep / Schlaf, the debut feature of German director Michael Venus, on Blu-ray is not to be slept on. Puns aside, the film lives up to its name with a dreamy aesthetic and storyline that creeps under your skin. We start with Marlene playing a game of […]