There’s a lovely extra on this Criterion 4K disc of Ken Russell’s Altered States. It sees the director appearing on a very leisurely chat show where the host is taken aback at how nice and softly-spoken the director of such notorious cinematic provocations as The Devils, Women in Love and […]
Reviews
The Diabolical Dr Z (1966) Jess Franco before he became the King of Spanish Sleaze
Jesús “Jess” Franco was God’s favourite pervert. If Mario Bava was the father of European gothic cinema, then Franco is its weird uncle – a title I bestow upon him out of love and appreciation, of course. According to IMDb, the Spanish genre filmmaker directed a whopping 199 feature films […]
Daughters of Darkness (1971) Beautiful Euro-Horror with a rich fantastique symbolism
Daughters of Darkness is forever associated with Mark Gatiss’s exceptional 2012 documentary Horror Europa – say what you will about his lacklustre attempts to keep A Ghost Story for Christmas alive. The programmes he made in the early 2010s about the history of cinematic horror are essential viewing for anyone […]
Furious Swords and Fantastic Warriors (1967-83) The Heroic Cinema of Chang Cheh
Run Run Shaw was an entrepreneur. He didn’t see the artistry in cinema, he wanted to make money and lots of it. After monopolising cinema theatres across most of east Asia, primarily in Singapore and Malaysia (under the name Malay Film Productions in the run up to World War II), Run […]
The Florida Project (2017): Reality in the Shadow of a Fantasy
Released on 4K UHD/Blu-ray (limited and standard edition) by Second Sight comes The Florida Project, the 2017 film from Sean Baker – the winner of this year’s Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture (Anora). Starring Brooklynn Kimberly Prince, Bria Vinaite, and Willem Dafoe, the film has been described […]
Malpertuis (1971) Dreamlike atmospherics and wilful obscurity
Based on Jean Ray’s 1943 novel of the same name and coming to Blu-ray courtesy of Radiance on 13th October, Malpertuis is a bizarre Belgian odyssey from director Harry Kümel. The film had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972, before subsequently fading from view into cinematic oblivion, […]
Good Boy (2025) – Unique Execution Applied To A Barebones Story
So you’ve all seen that movie poster over the last couple of months in which a horde of shadowy hands all reaching for a dog, right? It’s awesome, it’s unique, and it looks like a great concept. Good Boy has had a huge positive reception, not just because of its irresistibly […]
Iron Ladies (2025) The Women of the Working Class
Released in selected cinemas from 10th October, Iron Ladies is the latest documentary feature from Daniel Draper – the Liverpudlian filmmaker behind such films as Almost Liverpool 8, Manifesto, and last year’s Liverpool Story. As a storyteller, Draper’s chief passions are left wing politics and tight-knit community, and in Iron […]
Wendy and Lucy (2008): Pedigree take on a dog’s life
Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy – now released on Blu-Ray by Second Run – is a great film about animals, which is to say it’s a great film about people. Most films about the animal kingdom are sentimental, Disneyfied looks at nature, or at least ones that anthropomorphise their star […]
She Loved Blossoms More (2024): Headsplittingly Surreal Sci-Fi Family Drama
After making the festival circuit last year, the second feature film from Yannis Veslemes, She Loved Blossoms More, arrives over five years since he contributed to the anthology The Field Guide to Evil. This film shares some of the sensibilities with one of his fellow contributors to that anthology, Peter […]