Film Review: Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles
Whilst today, Luis Buñuel is a household name for cinephiles and Spanish film fans alike, this wasn’t always the case. After the controversy surrounding his feature debut, L’Age d’Or, the filmmaker struggled to find work after returning to Spain. No one was willing to finance him, but when he was approached with an offer of …
Film Review: Disappearance at Clifton Hill
There’s nothing quite like a good mystery to set pulses racing and brains whirring. Indeed, some of the most compelling cinema is created when the main protagonist is kept in the dark. We begin to root for them. Follow them as they try to connect the dots, searching for the truth vicariously through their actions. …
Film Review: The Beach House
The unknown can be scary. As humans, we are programmed to look for, even demand, explanation. When it’s not forthcoming, it can leave us with a hollow uncertainty. There’s a fine balance within storytelling between mystery and contrivance. Often, as much of the work of H.P. Lovecraft attests, ambiguity can leave the longest lasting impression. …
Film Review: Spaceship Earth
With the success of SpaceX and a renewed global commitment to go ‘back to the stars’, people are beginning to dream again about the prospect colonising another planet. One of the biggest challenges, if ever reach Mars, will be how we will survive in such an inhospitable environment. The logical solution would be to build …
Film Review: Weathering with You
Outside of Asia, anime is often discounted as being childish or considered something less than live-action films. It’s not always taken seriously, and when it does get coverage is regularly sidelined into a specialist category. This prejudice is vastly unfair. It’s a genre which comes in many shapes and sizes but directors such as Makoto …
Blu-Ray Review: Hanagatami
Film-making is a strange vocation. Unlike music, where your first album is often the culmination of a lifetimes’ work, directors can make film after film before bringing their pet project to fruition. It can become an obsession, which consumes and sometimes defeats. More often than not the end result is a disappointment. Terry Gilliam’s attempt …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: King Rocker
There’s often no rhyme or reason why one band makes it whilst another never quite takes off. So many factors are at play but it can come down to nothing more than just blind luck or being in the right place at the right time; which can trump all the hard work in the world. …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: Me and the Cult Leader
On 20 March 1995, members of the Aum Shinrikyo, a doomsday cult, orchestrated five coordinated attacks on the Tokyo Metro. During rush hour they released Sarin gas on three different lines, killing twelve and severely injuring many more. The perpetrators, including the leader Shoko Asahara, were executed, but the group is still operational; albeit under …
Film Review: A White, White Day
Icelandic cinema is enjoying something of a renaissance at the moment. Whilst its golden age was perhaps the turn of the century (101 Reykjavik, Nói albinói, Stormy Weather), the likes of Rams, Of Horses and Men, Woman at War and The County have garnered critical acclaim and wowed audiences around the world. Although Grímur Hákonarson …
Film Review: The Booksellers
Some people argue that in life there are two kinds of people. Those who love books, to whom reading is a part of life. And then there are those who are probably not worth knowing. Personally, I’m a traditionalist. I need to feel the pages and have no interest whatsoever of reading from a screen. …