For many film fans in the UK, the Criterion Collection has been locked behind region codes, therefore, the highest-profile of all boutique labels choosing 2016 to migrate to these shores is the best news in years. Their opening salvo of titles represents the eclectic mix that saw the New York-based […]
Reviews
Black Horse Canyon (1954) Stockholm Syndrome and Patsy Awards (Review)
Black Horse Canyon, a 50s Western based on Lee Savage’s novel, The Wild Horse sets up a clichéd love triangle and throws in the odd gun-run and pistol shoot out for good measure. A Rancher (Del Rockwell) and his adopted son (Race Gentry) are trying to capture and tame a […]
Grey Gardens (1975) The Maysles Brothers Forgotten Masterpiece resurfaces (Review)
What are the building blocks of a cult movie? Uniqueness and a certain quotability both help, but also it needs the sense of a world to explore, an impression that every casual reference to an off-screen character or brief appearance might lead to a life as full as any of […]
Three Days of the Condor (1975) Conspiracy Thriller that ages like a Fine Wine (Review)
Even with them being the source of consternation for critics and audiences alike, tropes are an invaluable resource for the film writer – either as a framework to subscribe to or one to rebel against. A film responsible for the installation of many tropes is Sydney Pollack’s Three Days of […]
Back to God’s Country (1953) Refreshingly Straight-Forward Artic Western (Review)
A Technicolor frontier adventure set in the wilds of the Arctic, Back to God’s Country exists at the intersection of three of the most comfortingly dad-movie genres; the pre-revisionist Western, the wilderness survival story and the Jack London-patented faithful dog story. Source author James Oliver Curwood was a contemporary of […]
Farewell my Concubine (1993) The Chinese Epic as a performance piece (Review)
In the West, Chinese or Peking Opera is known more for graduates Yuen Biao, Jackie Chan, Corey Yuen and Sammo Hung than any cultural footprint – despite dating back to the 18th century. This makes the BFI release of Chen Kaige’s epic Farewell my Concubine one of the more interesting […]
Bad Sister (1931) A Minor film with a Major claim to Fame (Review)
A minor film with a major claim to fame, Hobart Henley’s The Bad Sister was intended as a vehicle for Conrad Nagel and Sidney Fox, the latter of whom plays the disreputable sibling of the title. Today its fame rests on two supporting cast members; Humphrey Bogart in a supporting […]
Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945) The Darkest Soap Opera you’ve never seen (Review)
Ealing Studios are regarded as the bastion of post-war Cinema, the home of the finest comedies Britain has ever produced, but what is often overlooked is their innate Gothicism. With the artifice of its sets and the embers of Victorian London architecture, there is a Gothic grandeur running through the […]
Couple in a Hole (2015) Satisfying small drama from debuting Belgian Director (Review)
Tom Geens’s Couple in a Hole begins with a gorgeous, slow shot of a forest at the height of summer, then it delivers its first jolt before the film is two minutes old. Geens’s second film after 2009’s Menteur, Couple in a Hole is his first work outside his native Belgium, […]
The Sound Barrier (1952) David Lean, The Showman with Substance? (Review)
Despite being a hit on its 1952 release, The Sound Barrier is now one of the least-seen of David Lean’s films. A shame, as it represents an artist in the middle of a fascinating transition. Released just five years before The Bridge on the River Kwai, its daring spectacle points […]