Before starting this review I have to ask you the question: have you heard of Yokai? If not this is definitely the place to start, if you have then this should be a great addition to your Blu-Ray collection. Arrow Video has collected together the original Yokai trilogy: 100 Monsters, […]
Reviews
Bad Candy (2021): and the curse of Halloween Horror Movies (DVD Review)
Packed to the rafters with Halloween tropes, what this uneven anthology lacks in scares, it makes up for it in gore and pumpkins. Horror anthology TV series are all the rage at the moment, but apart from a few honourable mentions (the Tales from the Crypt series for retro fans, […]
Almost Liverpool 8 (2021) A Love Letter to a Postcode (Review)
In this documentary film, the writer Ronnie Hughes remarks “I’m not particularly interested in history…I’m more interested in what it tells us about how people live, and how is it now, and what is the history of now that we can turn into the future” So let’s get the history […]
No Man of God (2021): not the Bundy biopic you may be fearing (Review)
Amber Sealey’s first film, A + D, was a microbudget affair set in a London flat and starring the director herself. Her latest, No Man of God, is about Ted Bundy, one of America’s most obsessed-over criminals, and features Elijah Wood and Robert Patrick. That sounds like a big step […]
Love & Basketball (2000): and a lot more besides (Review)
Auteurism isn’t very popular these days, even amongst auteurs. The current fashion seems to have swung back to a pre-1950s model of treating the studio as the defining creative voice of a film, which can be interesting – auteur theory itself originated in such an environment – but it comes […]
Toshiaki Toyoda (2005-2021/Part II) Kubozuko & filmmaking with conviction (Review)
Third Window Films released their second edition of boxsets collecting the work of unsung cult Japanese cinema icon, Toshiaki Toyoda, following their previous “early year’s” collection. I previously talked about the 2nd collection yesterday, specifically around the first three movies – Hanging Garden, Day of Destruction and Monster’s Club. The […]
Violation (2020): hardcore revenge without the toxicity (Review)
The rape-revenge movie: what is to be done? Four decades ago, as the video nasties scare began to percolate, rape-revenge narratives joined “Italian cannibal movies” and “concentration camp exploitation” in the list of topics least likely to be officially approved for release. Now, our most accomplished female screenwriters and directors […]
Toshiaki Toyoda (2005-2021) (Part I) Unpredictable, Stylish Japanese Punk Fury (Review)
In a little peek behind the curtain, I usually like to leave it until the concluding paragraphs to reveal the essence of my opinion of a film or indeed a collection. I’m not going to do that here. Instead, I am completely jumping the gun to say that over the […]
La Dolce Vita (1960): when Fellini became Fellini-esque (Review)
On April 11th 1953, the body of aspiring actress Wilma Montesi was found on a beach outside of Rome. Her death, which remains unsolved, sparked one of the first major tabloid scandals in Italian history, as journalists from monarchist and Communist papers alike suggested the police’s apparent inability to catch […]
The Sabata Trilogy (1969-71) For a Few Sequels More (Review)
The Western has been around as long as Hollywood. It stands to reason I guess that, when looking to tell tales on the big screen with this new medium of cinema, many American filmmakers looked towards the history of their homeland. However, by the 1960s Hollywood’s rendition of the Wild […]