Let’s be honest, what is there really left to say about Police Story? It’s one of the icons of Hong Kong action, it launched a 7 movie spanning franchise, it was pivotal in making Jackie Chan one of the most beloved faces in world cinema, and above all that, it […]
Reviews
Separate Tables (1963) sophisticated fun save for some inadvertent unpleasantness
One of the main extras on the BFI’s new dual-format reissue of Separate Tables is an archive commentary by director Delbert Mann, who died in 2007. Mann is still probably best known for his Oscar-winning 1955 debut Marty, but he’d worked extensively in television beforehand. Back then the medium was […]
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018) a must for period drama fans, an easy skip for everyone else (Review)
Based on the bestselling 2008 novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society stars Lily James as Juliet Ashton, a free-spirited young woman in immediate post-war London who seems to have the world at her feet, thanks to her penning a bestselling book […]
The Miraculous Virgin (1966) a virtuoso exercise of imagery & poetry (Review)
Štefan Uher’s The Miraculous Virgin, released on Blu-Ray for the first time anywhere in the world by Second Run Films, is one of those 1960s Czechoslovak films that’s so freeform in its plotting, so rapturously visual, that it’s hard to imagine it having a script, let alone a source novel. […]
Tideland (2005) Gilliam’s misunderstood masterpiece (Review)
Look up the word ‘Gilliamesque’ in the dictionary, and you’re likely to find the following descriptions of Terry Gilliam’s wild films. A strong sense of dark humour and visual comedy? Check. Dystopian futures? Double-check. Striking fantasy sequences? Triple check. All of these traits are present in Brazil, 12 Monkeys, and […]
Under the Tree (2017) Icelandic Black Comedy fails to live up to its early promise (Review)
Released in cinemas by Eureka Pictures, Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurđsson’s Icelandic black comedy Under the Tree begins with an inspired contemporary take on an old joke. Atli, played by Steinthór Hróar Steinthórsson, is watching a sex tape of himself with his ex-girlfriend when his wife walks in. Panicked, he closes the […]
Bagdad Cafe (1987) Reassures us that even within chaos it is safe to exhale (Review)
A couple from Rosenheim, Germany stop at a gas station in the middle of the Mojave Desert, California and argue. The dissatisfied wife, Jasmin, (Marianne Sägebrecht) leaves her husband. She checks in at the Bagdad Cafe and Motel run by a stressed business owner and single mother of three, the […]
The Navigator – A Medieval Odyssey (1984) the perfect rainy day film (Review)
Question: Who was originally desired to direct Alien 3? While David Fincher’s take makes for an interesting watch he wasn’t 20th Century Fox’s first pick. Vincent Ward was booked first and got as far starting production before walking away citing creative differences. While he is credited for the story it’s […]
F for Fake (1973) Orson Welles’s beguiling, adventurous art documentary swansong (Review)
“I started at the top”, Orson Welles quips in F for Fake, “and have been working my way down ever since”. After the great man’s death in 1985 Welles’s gag became something worryingly close to consensus. Obituary after obituary tutted about what a shame it was that he never lived up […]
Apostasy (2017) a splash of cold water on the sometimes sleepy face of British filmmaking (Review)
At what point does the care and attention of a close-knit community become too close, evolving into a punishing system of abuse and control? What separates legitimate beliefs from the parasitic, overbearing decrees of an extremist cult? If you’re looking for ambiguous and equivocating answers to those questions, don’t watch […]