TRIBECA INTERVIEW: ‘Kata’ Director James Latimer
Appearance can only tell a fraction of the story, and it’s a notion wholly applicable to Kata, a martial arts short from Japan-based filmmaker James Latimer currently showing at Tribeca in the “Go Big” programme. The seven-minute work is, like Bart Layton’s docudrama American Animals,…
COMPETITION: Win Season One Of ‘Wellington Paranormal’ On Blu-ray (UK)
To celebrate the upcoming Digital, DVD and Blu-ray release of Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s What We Do In The Shadows spin-off series, Wellington Paranormal, we have a Blu-ray copy up for grabs! Wellington Paranormal follows hilariously hapless officers Mark Minogue and Karen O’Leary as they…
REVIEW: Les Nôtres (2021)
Les Nôtres is a mystery that faces great difficulties when it comes to deciding where its priorities lie. It starts off strong, as a brooding character piece that examines the psyche of a pregnant teenager who feels vulnerable and afraid, but begins to lose its…
New UK Trailer For ‘Diana’s Wedding’ Released
– July 29, 1981. Lady Diana Spencer marries Charles, Prince of Wales, at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. On that same day, Liv and Terje are celebrating their wedding too. In a pram lies their daughter, Diana, who like her famous namesake, has a chaotic…
Latest Reviews
REVIEW: Luca (2021)
The eighth of March 2020 is a day that lives in my own personal infamy – I went to the cinema and watched two movies – the Sad-Dad Ben Affleck opus The Way Back (and what a year he’s had since) and Pixar’s Onward. A…
REVIEW: A Crime on the Bayou (2021)
It’s fair to say that divisions and racial tensions in America are every bit as palpable as they were back in 1966, the year Nancy Buirski’s documentary reflects upon. There might not be Jim Crow or (official) segregation, but there is George Floyd and Breonna…
REVIEW: Les Nôtres (2021)
Les Nôtres is a mystery that faces great difficulties when it comes to deciding where its priorities lie. It starts off strong, as a brooding character piece that examines the psyche of a pregnant teenager who feels vulnerable and afraid, but begins to lose its…
REVIEW: Songs For a Sloth (2021)
Death (or grief) can do strange things to a person. It can make you lash out; it can make you hyper organised; it can make even the most basic of tasks feel draining. It doesn’t usually, however, make you conjure up a talking sloth with…
REVIEW: Queen of Spades (2021)
There is a type of horror movie released in the last decade or so, that feels cheaply made, but not as in it has a low budget. These movies usually have a young cast, of teenagers or twenty-somethings, and have the exact same half-baked stereotypical…
REVIEW: Shock Wave – Hong Kong Destruction (2021)
Shock Wave: Hong Kong Destruction is the sequel to the 2017 film Shock Wave and, once again, follows bomb disposal officer Poon Shing-Fung (Andy Lau – The Great Wall, House of Flying Daggers, Infernal Affairs Trilogy). After a bomb disposal goes wrong, he’s left in…
REVIEW: Brabham (2021)
Formula One, in recent years, has become synonymous with hyperbolic wealth and glamorous locations. Think of the jewel in the racing calendar crown, Monte Carlo – a veritable playground for the rich and famous. Think of the multi-million dollar sponsorship deals per car. Think of…
REVIEW: What Lies West (2021)
What is there to do in the summer holidays if you have a protective mother and a superficial babysitter? Arguably not a first choice for the average teenage girl, but sometimes the best remedy is a naturalistic hike across the state. This is exactly the…
Latest Features
Hampton v Hollywood
As ever, this year’s Academy Awards consisted of a strange celebration of trauma from the perspective of the elite, from the trial of Brock Turner in Promising Young Woman to the murder of George Floyd in Two Distant Strangers. The collective agony of the masses…
TCMFF 2021: Humphrey Bogart and Jimmy Stewart in early Anti-Fascist Works
Black Legion (1937) and The Mortal Storm (1940) It is always fascinating and astonishing to look at works of art that come out of war time or political turmoil while the events are still ongoing. If you look at the war films made during World War…
“Somebody’s Gotta Save Our Skins!”: On Star Wars’ Death Star Escape Sequence
From space battles to superhuman fistfights, adventure has become one of the most prevalent elements for sculpting blockbuster entertainment. Big-budget spectacle was arguably kicked off by George Lucas’ original Stars Wars, and while its macro-structure depends on some winning storytelling archetypes to anchor its visionary…
It’s Called Fashion, Look it Up!
As today is the first Monday in May, we should be enjoying the red carpet photographs from the Met Gala, one of the biggest fashion events of the year. Unfortunately last year’s event, which had one of the most exciting sounding concepts in years –…
The Queer Question Mark – Should Straight Actors Play Gay?
In a welcome change of pace, the 93rd Academy Award nominations featured some of the most diverse choices in recent Oscar history. However, the acting nominations continued to contribute to a well-established trend, namely straight performers being nominated for their portrayals of queer characters. Some…
How We Made True History of the Kelly Gang
After premiering at Toronto International Film Festival in September 2019 and moving onto Glasgow Film Festival in February 2020, True History of the Kelly Gang was finally released in the US on April 24, 2020 (exactly a year ago). Unfortunately this release was on VOD…
The Monsterverse and its Lack of Compelling Human Characters
WARNING: This contains spoilers to the Monsterverse films: Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) and Godzilla vs. Kong (2021). There’s a clever ode to Planet of the Apes in Adam Wingard’s Godzilla vs. Kong, the fourth film in Legendary’s…
Low-Key but Legit: The Wondrous Women of Bong Joon-ho
For Asian women of the past, present and future. *Contains spoilers for some of Bong Joon-ho’s films. “Stop!” shouts Officer Kwon Kwi-ok (Ko Seo-hie) with all her might to get her male colleagues to focus on the radio playing Sad Letter, a song the killer…