Even in a festival as dedicated to the unexpected as Slamdance, there’s only one strand where you can see a film whose descriptive subtitles specify the sound of “[downpour of fish]”. It’s the experimental shorts strand, a useful opportunity to press your ear to the film-making underground. The fishy rain […]
Movies & Documentaries
The Complex Forms (Slamdance Film Festival 2024)(Review)
Slamdance is a film festival positioned around micro budget productions, giving writers and directors an early step in their career – a step with considerable lineage given its on the doorstep of its third decade. That qualifier, micro-budget, gives a certain impression of what sort of narrative films the festival […]
Peeping Tom (1960) – A rightfully reappraised masterwork (Review)
Following a run of classics that he created with Emeric Pressburger, director Michael Powell made his second solo feature with 1960’s Peeping Tom. Now considered a masterpiece that is an ancestor of the slasher subgenre, however, the feeling was much different upon release as the film was so vilified that […]
Demon Mineral (Slamdance Film Festival 2024)(Review)
Now just a year away from its thirtieth birthday, Slamdance remains focused on low-budget films from emerging directors. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s alienated from the mainstream, though. The 2024 festival has specialist strands dealing with two areas that have been unexpectedly prominent in mainstream media of late. One of […]
Samurai Wolf (1966) & Samurai Wolf II (1967) Isao Natsuyagi’s potential killer franchise (Review)
Having come up through the ranks at Fuji TV as both a producer and a director, Hideo Gosha still faced a huge divide between those that worked in the honoured tradition of cinema and those working in that new upstart fad called Television. In fact, this well regarded director would […]
When Taekwondo Strikes (1973) Luring Audiences back after the passing of a Universal Star (Review)
July 20th 1973. A date shrouded in mystery as it is tragedy. The world lost a hero, but created a legend, one that thrives to this day. However, as with most legends, the story varies greatly from storyteller to storyteller, each version getting more lurid and conspiratorial in nature, until […]
High Tension (2003) Loved and Loathed in Equal Measure (Review)
Saw may have ushered in a new wave of gritty “torture-porn” horror in the States, but by the time that James Wan’s modern classic hit U.S. cinemas in late 2004, filmmakers in France were already two steps ahead of the curve. Characterised by bleak tones, grungy colour palettes, and extended […]
The Civil Dead (2022) A Mumblecore Shaggy Dog Story with None of the Downsides (Review)
Giving himself a home-made haircut that turns into a “full-on mullet”, Clay – the hero of The Civil Dead, released in UK cinemas this week – can see the hopeful side. His photography business has been struggling: having terrible hair might be the gimmick he needs. The Civil Dead itself […]
Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe (1964-2008) The Man, His Myth and The Legend that made him (Review)
Arrow jumbo boxsets are always aptly titled. Their collection of filmmaking’s Florida Man (Herschell Gordon Lewis), spanning fourteen films all dedicated to gruey gloop, was emblazoned with the word Feast. Their recent Enter The Video Store set let you literally take the lid off a miniature video store to select […]
The Boy And The Heron (2023) – A Triumphant If Flawed Comeback For An Animation Titan
As part of my endeavour to see as many films in the cinema this year as I possibly can, I thought there was no better place to start (and no better first thing to review) than a Studio Ghibli film, especially when it’s their first film in nearly a decade […]