One of the reasons I enjoy writing is because I want to share my love of films with other people. I’ve always taken pride in introducing friends, family, and now strangers, to movies that have changed my life. The reverse is also incredibly special, when someone shares one of their […]
Reviews
Bodyguard Kiba 1&2 (1973) Never a bad thing when it comes to Sonny Chiba (Review)
Adapted from the action manga by Ikki Kajiwara, the Bodyguard Kiba movies were another series in a long line which were starring vehicles for arguably the most charismatic actor on Japan at the time, one Shinichi “Sonny” Chiba. Having made a steady stream of movies since 1959 for TOEI, working […]
Doctor Jekyll (2023): Entertaining Reinterpretation of Classic Story (Review)
The world premiere of Doctor Jekyll at Frightfest 2023 (which I was able to attend) began with director Joe Stephenson announcing he was about to go into a meeting to find out whether Hammer would still be producers on the movie. By the end of the screening, it was confirmed […]
Room at the Top (1959): The Birth of British New Wave Cinema (Review)
Released to Blu-ray this week by Studio Canal’s Vintage Classics label is the feature that effectively gave birth to the British film industry’s New Wave period of the 1960s, Jack Clayton’s 1959 movie Room at the Top, starring Laurence Harvey and Simone Signoret. The opening shot of Harvey’s threadbare socks […]
The Roaring Twenties (1939) How Systemic Failure Created a Gangster (Review)
Criterion’s stunning UHD Blu-Ray release of The Roaring Twenties allows audiences to rediscover a film that marked the end of the golden age of gangster films. Made in 1939, long after the success of Little Caesar (1931), Public Enemy (1931), and Scarface (1932), Raoul Walsh’s film is a fascinating, nostalgic […]
Dogman (2023) Character actor gets plenty to chew on in strange shaggy dog story (Review)
There are many enticing puns a film like Dogman can provoke. The waft of a “dog’s dinner” is a tempting angle to take if the film is a complete mess, and if it’s just plain poor, a reviewer could do a This is Spinal Tap-style Shark Sandwich/”Shit Sandwich” quip and […]
One Percenter (2023): Japanese Fall Guy delivers eighty-five minutes of mayhem (Review)
For some people, films about film-making are insufferable exercises in navel-gazing, nothing more than a way for self-absorbed artistes to force us to experience their creative angst. Yet there is a long history of this kind of meta-film within that least pretentious of genres, action. There’s a pretty simple reason […]
Padre Pio (2022) Hollywood pariah plays pious friar in pandering prayer for pity (Review)
Tales of redemption can come in many forms. The Bible is full of them, from Noah to Moses, depicting flawed individuals picking themselves up and striding into the divine light of the Lord. Hollywood redemption stories are a different kettle of fish. Since 2017, the culture has changed, and victims […]
Tropic (2022) Sci-Fi as a deeply personal take on Male Pride (Review)
There can be no avoiding weeks like this – weeks where other movies run in fear of the magnitude of the big release of the week, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Part Two. However, there is also something sly about weeks like this, as you can find counter-programming, antidotes to the magnetism […]
Dune Part Two (2024) Powerful Blockbuster Storytelling that leaves you wanting more (Review)
There is a moment in Dune Part Two when Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) is captured in long shot using a device to create a thumping sound. Tiny against the expanse of the desert, his actions nonetheless create expanding ripples. This is a microcosm of the film as a whole, as […]