It’s back to 1987 for this week’s Criterion Collection release and a time when everyone began to kid themselves that they could speak Spanish for a summer thanks to the chart-topping hit from Los Lobos of the same name – La Bamba A rock and roll biopic, La Bamba tells […]
Movies & Documentaries
Tchaikovsky’s Wife (2023) Biopic Anchored by the brilliant Alyona Mikhaylova (Review)
Tchaikovsky’s Wife – at first it may seem incongruous that Kirill Serebrennikov (Petrov’s Flu & LETO) – a parodist of contemporary Russia and two-year victim of a politically motivated house arrest who now lives in exile, would tackle an iconic Russian figure who’s central to understanding the nation’s cultural identity. […]
World Noir Vol. 1 (1957-59) Long May These Radiance Boxsets Continue (Review)
It was the French critic Nino Frank who famously first applied the term ‘film noir’ to the series of hardboiled Hollywood crime pictures that finally appeared in France after the Occupation. He was acting under the influence of the acclaimed, and rightfully famous, Gallimard crime fiction imprint Série noire – […]
Black God, White Devil (1964) – An Unforgettable Brazilian Classic (Review)
When Sight and Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time poll crowned Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles No.1 last year there was a great deal of predictably boring discourse online. The most striking thing I saw in the fallout had nothing to do with Chantel Akerman’s masterpiece, but […]
Murder Obsession (1981): Late-Period Meta-Giallo With Some Unforgettable Set-Pieces (Review)
In terms of titles that encapsulate the appeal of a whole genre, there aren’t many competitors, are there? You have the murder, you have the obsession, and every giallo must feature both, but only one of them is called Murder Obsession. Riccardo Freda’s final film, reissued on Blu-Ray by Radiance […]
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022) A Gorgeously Animated And Engaging New Take On A Classic (Review)
Something that only just clicked with me when watching Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is that I have never seen a bad stop-motion animated film. Not one. Don’t worry, I’m not about to say that Pinocchio is bad, it’s just a startling fact that I can’t believe I’ve never noticed. At […]
Elegant Beast (1962) – A Capitalist Nightmare in Post-war Japan
I find Radiance Films to be an antidote for the general lack of curation in the world of big brand streaming. Each new physical release is a lovingly-packaged treat, often re-introducing an overlooked or under-seen film into the canon. I trust their taste and, with each new film I watch, […]
Savage Guns – Four Classic Westerns (1968-1975) A Quartet of Bleak and Gritty Late Period Spaghetti Westerns (Review)
Four of the Italian western’s hardest, cruelest, bloodiest classics are released to Blu-ray this week in Arrow’s ongoing limited edition series of Spaghetti Western boxsets. Under the umbrella title Savage Guns, this third volume brings four unsung classics of the genre aficionados of heavily dubbed, violent and sun-baked horse operas: Paolo […]
Typhoon Club (1985) – Raging emotions and worries about adulthood [Review]
![Typhoon Club (1985) – Raging emotions and worries about adulthood [Review]](https://i0.wp.com/thegeekshow.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/nmIlVGA6FHRD5RewgLz247Pg3Rw.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1)
Typhoon Club is based off a screenplay by Yuji Kato, director Shinji Sōmai crafts a coming of age tale without sentimentality for its disaffected youths. This is made clear in the opening scene as teenage girls having an infectious dance party at the swimming pool turn their attentions onto Akira […]
The Peasants / Chlopi (2023): An Innovative Combination of Historical Epic and Living Painting
Following on from the success of Loving Vincent, which utilised an innovative technique of recreating frames of recorded live-action scenes as oil paintings, DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman have found a new way of exploring their unique aesthetic. The Peasants is an adaptation of Wladyslaw Reymont’s novel of the same […]