There’s a famous idiom that, in simple terms, states that comedy is simply tragedy plus time, but is the reverse also true? Recently released on Blu-ray by Studio Canal, Alvin Rakoff’s The Comedy Man (1964), is a satirical take on the kitchen sink dramas that were popular during that period, […]
Blu-Ray Review
Happy End (1967): the kind of film that could spark a lifelong obsession with Czech comedy (Review)
Tony Arzenta (1973): A Hitman’s Revenge (Review)
Green Room (2015) N*zi Punks F*ck Off in 4K (Review)
Bodyguard Kiba 1&2 (1973) Never a bad thing when it comes to Sonny Chiba (Review)
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 […]
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 […]