Blu-Ray Review: The Mercy
Adventure and discovery have always fascinating man, whether we’re born with the bug or merely excitable voyeurs. Whilst most challenges have now been conquered, even as late as the 1990s the press was full of Richard Branson’s failed attempt to circumnavigate the globe in a hot air balloon. Combine that with a soft spot for …
Incoming: My Friend Dahmer
Jeff Dahmer is an awkward teenager struggling to make it through high school with a family life in ruins. He collects roadkill, fixates on a neighbourhood jogger and copes with his unstable mother and well-intentioned father. He begins to act out at school, and his goofball antics win over a group of band-nerds who form …
Film Review: L’Amant Double
There was a time when erotic thrillers were big business in Hollywood. For almost two decades, during the 1980s and 1990s, there was a raft of these types of films. Whilst they were mostly dreadful and all too often descended into soft porn, there were also some outstanding exceptions. The likes of Fatal Attraction, Body …
Film Festival Preview: Sheffield Doc/Fest 2018
2018 marks the 25th anniversary of Sheffield Doc/Fest, the UK’s leading documentary film festival and one of the biggest in the world. This year’s programme features 37 world premieres, 18 International, 24 European and 70 UK premieres and takes place at various venues across Sheffield between 7-12 June. Along with a great Alternative Realities line-up, …
Blu-Ray Review: The Dam Busters
To try and document and capture everything that happened during World War II would be nigh on impossible. There were so many different battles, skirmishes and engagements on air, land and sea, taking place all over the world, that it’s simply too much to process. Therefore, we tend to focus on certain key dates, battles …
Incoming: Ismael’s Ghosts
Ismaël Vuillard makes films. He is in the middle of one about Ivan, an atypical diplomat inspired by his brother. Along with Bloom, his master and father-in-law, Ismaël still mourns the death of Carlotta, twenty years earlier. Yet he has started his life over again with Sylvia. Sylvia is his light. Then Carlotta returns from …
Blu-Ray Review: Smash Palace
I really don’t understand it myself, but there are lots of men (and a few women) who have a strange obsession with motor cars. What’s even more perverse is that they aren’t just content with driving/dreaming of driving their dream car, they also enjoy watching other people do it. Bizarrely, it’s even called a sport. …
Incoming: Edie
Meet Edith Moore (Sheila Hancock) an elderly woman, who in the aftermath of the death of her controlling husband, decides to fulfil a life-long dream and overcome a lifetime of bitterness and resentment. At the tender age of eighty-three, Edie sets out to try and capture a little of the magic she had as a …
Film Review: Zama
There are some film directors who seem to churn out several films per year (I’m looking at you Takeshi Miike) whilst others consistently deliver every year or two. Whether by choice, being distracted by other artforms or through a painstaking production process, a small group are much less prolific. Paul Thomas Anderson is a prime …
Blu-Ray Review: My Generation
During the 1960s, London was the most happening place in the world to be. The swinging sixties, which was in many ways a reaction to the post-war conservatism of the previous decade, saw the establishment rocked to the core by a wave of new music, film, art and fashion. For the first time working-class youth …