The documentary format where a TV crew follow a public servant, chronicling their professions ins and outs has become supremely trite over the last decade, the BBC are the prime offenders with this. Like the game show, with each new one popping up it becomes as clear as day that […]
Reviews
Lesson of Evil (2011) Takashi Miike returns to his controversial roots (Review)
Between his flirtation with every genre under the sun and his prolific nature, there is absolutely no else in the world like Takashi Miike. For a while now, he has been maturing as a director, seeking more than the exploitation films he made his name with, the apex of which […]
The Visitor (1979) Five movies glued together in an act of rebellious, surreal madness (Review)
Usually, when the credits roll, you’ll have a fair idea what you thought of a film, maybe it’ll take a while to settle but the basis of an opinion is there. Sometimes, though, sometimes an opinion is as far away as the horizon. Sometimes you have to talk it out […]
A Farewell to Arms (1932) World War I movie or classical melodrama romance? (Review)
The Dukes Theatre in Lancaster recently had a run from progressive multimedia Theatre Company imitating the dog that adapted Ernest Hemingway’s anti-war novel A Farewell to Arms. During the same window, BFI issued a Blu-ray/DVD release of Frank Borzage’s 1932 Oscar-winning film (Best Cinematography and Sound) adaptation of the classic […]
Madame Dubarry (1919) Ernst Lubitsch unknowingly kickstarts the modern biopic (Review)
Ernst Lubitsch isn’t remembered for the silent work which Eureka’s Masters of Cinema is concerning themselves with, his name carries traction from his dramatic comedies of the 1930s and 40s (To be or not to be, Trouble in Paradise). Madame Dubarry predates this and the boom era of the silent […]
A Jester’s Tale (1964) Karel Zeman’s Astonishing Anti-Historical War Epic (Review)
Everybody invested to a certain degree in cinema has their favourite actors and directors; the fascinating part of which is discovering who influenced them. This is doubly true when you discover the people who influenced such a staunch surrealist and outsider, Terry Gilliam, the very same influence that can also […]
Night Moves (2013) Polarizing Slow Cinema takes on radical environmentalism (Review)
Not to be confused with Arthur Penn’s under-appreciated mystery film starring Gene Hackman, Night Moves is the latest film from American minimalist Kelly Reichardt. It follows the current wave of films about radical environmentalists from the heart of the American indie. A trend that has yet to have its definitive […]
Branded to Kill (1967): A Hitman Movie like you’ve never seen before (Review)
The textbook example of a film misunderstood in its own time, upon the release of Branded to kill the legendary the Japanese director Seijun Suzuki was fired by Nikkatsu Studios. Nikkatsu even went to the length of refusing to release it, a decision that saw court action and Suzuki ejected […]
The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971) & Dr Phibes Rises Again (1972)(Review)
Arrow films resume their retrospective of the finest titles from Vincent Price’s filmography with a double bill of Robert Fuest’s Doctor Phibes films – the Abominable Dr Phibes and Dr Phibes rises again. Before moving onto the films themselves the matter of the bundle is in question. What little extras […]
Nashville (1975) Altman at his very best provided you like Country Music (Review)
On the sheer scale of the venture, thinking of this release of Robert Altman’s Nashville as nothing shy of towering would be a gross underestimation. The vague narrative has 24 characters and an hour of uninterrupted musical numbers. Across many concerts and gigs, country musicians navigate a hectic week competing […]