LFF Review: Sick of Myself
It has been a profitable couple of years for Norwegian cinema and there are few hotter actors at the minute than Kristine Kujath Thorp. Indeed, since her breakout performance in Ninjababy last year she’s gone on to flex her action muscles in John Andreas Andersen’s The Burning Sea. However, so far, comedy is where she …
Grimmfest Review: Vesper
Science fiction is one of the difficult genres to get right on the big screen, particularly when it’s an adaptation of an existing property. The biggest hurdle to cross is world building. Fans of a book, or series of books, will already have their own ideas and impressions, so managing and meeting expectations is extremely …
Grimmfest Review: The Harbinger
Those of us in the West are fortuitous to be living in an unusually stable period of history. While the current pandemic has shaken the world in ways which were unimaginable just a few years ago, epidemics used to be commonplace. During outbreaks of the bubonic plague, towns hired plague doctors. These were often second-rate …
Grimmfest Review: Malibu Horror Story
Found footage remains one of the most popular areas of modern genre cinema. Spurred by the success of The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, this century has seen a raft of films vying for the attention of horror fans. Filmmakers drawn by the relatively low production costs. In the majority of cases, they’ve fallen …
LFF Review: Stonewalling
Last year, the United States Supreme Court essentially repealed Roe vs. Wade, overruling the judgement which gave women the substantive right to have an abortion. While it was a terrible day for Americans, access to women’s reproductive rights has been much more firmly controlled in many parts of the world. In China, the authorities are …
LFF Review – Bobi Wine: The People’s President
Like many of its neighbours, Uganda has had a bumpy road since independence. While it currently describes itself as a democracy, there’s not much democratic about the current regime. Following six years of war, Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986. While elections happen, the opposition and their supporters are routinely arrested, tortured and killed. …
Grimmfest Review: Moon Garden
Relationships are hard. They require a lot of work and the person you were madly in love with just a year ago could now be your sworn enemy. Communication is key, but it’s far too easy to let petty differences build up until this becomes the hardest thing to do. The catalyst for such difficulties …
LFF Review: The Woman in the White Car
One of the most compelling areas of crime fiction is that of the police procedural. A book, TV show or film which concentrates on the investigative process. Following the police or, in many cases, a downbeat inspector with an alcohol problem, go through the steps they take to try and solve a crime can be …
Grimmfest Review: Candy Land
When the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England, it held the promise of a brand-new life for those onboard. The Pilgrims (or Pilgrim Fathers) landed in the New World with a determination to establish a new form of Christianity. Their puritanical brand of worship set them apart, but today this has morphed into something much …
Grimmfest Review: Holy Shit!
It seems to follow that first time directors, usually for financial reasons, often confine their shoot to as few locations as possible. After climbing the ladder and receiving more financial backing, they tend to quickly expand their horizons; using multiple locations and digital effects. This doesn’t, for one second, mean that the film is likely …