Introducing himself to various people on a road trip across America, David Howard explains his project as follows: “We’ve dropped out of society”. Yet the first stop he and his wife Linda make on their journey is Las Vegas, a town whose inhabitants live, as the Joker so sagely informs […]
Reviews
Kagemusha (1980) Kurosawa, the master visual story-teller (Blu-ray Review)
74 years old Akira Kurosawa was when he directed Kagemusha. And, funnily enough, the 1970s weren’t a kind decade to the master director with the highest-profile film, of the three he produced that decade, being the marginal Serbian Adventure Movie, Dersu Uzala. A point stressed in the extras of this […]
The Columnist (2020) A Shrewdly Clever Dark Comedy Horror for the Online Age (Review)
I won’t go as far as calling the internet a mistake as it has opened up dialogue, culture and opportunities that never would’ve been available otherwise. We certainly wouldn’t exist without the internet. That being said, the advent of social media has provided ample opportunity to those with the most […]
Breeder (2020): reclaiming the torture horror? (Review)
The 2000s cycle of torture-themed horror – commonly referred to as “torture porn”, and my, doesn’t that term get you some looks when you casually use it around people who aren’t obsessed with minor horror subgenres – may be the only cinematic trend brought down by a billboard. Advertising for […]
What Lies Below (2020) An inventive, visually fresh horror finish that deserves better (Review)
A trope of the 90s thriller was born out of films like Single White Female, Fatal Attraction, Misery and the like – films that turned possessive women into vehicles for violent thrillers. Moving the goalposts away from that idea for a moment, many directors use the model of taking an […]
Host (2020): as good on Blu-Ray as it was streaming (Review)
The call is coming from inside the computer! Horror fans have fought and largely won the battle for their preferred genre to be respected as art. It’s worth acknowledging, though, that part of the genre’s power comes from how disreputable it can be. The subterranean status of horror licenses it […]
The Ascent (1977) The Greatest Anti-War Film You Haven’t Seen (Review)
Released on Blu-ray this week via the Criterion label comes arguably the best war, or rather anti-war film, you’ve never seen. What’s that at the back? You’ve seen Melville’s Army of Shadows already? Well that’s OK, because I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about Larisa Shepitko’s stunning 1977 Golden […]
Charade (1963) one perfect story-telling machine (Review)
For a decade which produced some of the most enduring, beloved hits in American cinema history – everything from The Sound of Music to Psycho – it can be hard to love 1960s Hollywood in toto. The Golden Age was over, the 1970s New Hollywood was yet to be born, […]
The Owners (2020) A very British home invasion horror movie (Review)
Sick of his dead-end life, a young man called Nathan teams up with his friend Terry to burgle a local doctor’s house whilst the doctor, Richard Huggins, and his wife, Ellen, are away. Terry’s mum works as a cleaner there, and has told him that there’s a safe. They will […]
Rams (2020): not quite the GOAT, but a touching shaggy sheep story (Review)
Hollywood’s voracious consumption of other countries’ IP has made it easy to identify when a film has been Americanised, but what do we expect when a film transfers from Iceland to Australia? Grímur Hákonarson’s 2015 film Rams was voted the second-best Icelandic film of all time by the Icelandic website […]