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 […]
Reviews
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 […]
The Guest (2014) Camp 1980s style action that lays the 80s on thick (Review)
New from Second Sight, Adam Wingard’s 2014 thriller The Guest is now available on both Blu-Ray and 4K as a limited-edition release. Dan Stevens stars as David, a discharged soldier who unexpectedly shows up at the home of the Peterson family, claiming to be a friend of their recently killed […]
Terrified (2017) Fantastically scary if hamstrung by poor worldbuilding (Review)
A neighbourhood going to hell, quite literally, proves surprisingly scary in the chilling Argentine horror. When considering your first step on the property ladder, how many people enquire as to whether the house is a conduit to another dimension full of lanky, naked demons and octopus armed hell beasts with […]