Film Review: The Run
Whilst the whole concept seems pretty alien to me, some people were just born to run. Sometimes kids pick it up at an early age and never stop but for others an attempt to get fit can spiral into an obsession. As a young man, Pat Farmer found he had a passion for ultra-marathon running. …
Blu-Ray Review: The Naked Kiss
Samuel Fuller was never a director to shy away from controversy or take the easy road. The controversial film-maker never abided by convention and was seemingly incapable of resting on his laurels. After starting out making Westerns and war films, he made the shift into thrillers during the 1960s. Operating largely outside of the studio …
Film Review: The Souvenir
Joanna Hogg is undoubtedly one of the most unusual and singular voices working in British cinema today. Her work resides in the world she knows. A world of privilege, art and wealth. Whilst this approach is undeniably refreshing, it has come in for criticism. However, her work to date, Unrelated, Archipelago and Exhibition, demonstrate an …
Film Review: Aniara
Earth has only got finite resources and with rapid population growth, climate change and an increasingly unstable political landscape our time on this planet might be limited to decades, not centuries. At some stage, we’re likely to need a new home. One within reach but which can sustain human life, one way or another. When …
Blu-Ray Review: Shock Corridor
It has been a long time coming but, in the West at least, mental illness is finally being treated as seriously as physical conditions. The brain is an incredibly complex organ. So labyrinthine that we are still far from understanding how it works. This ‘grey’ area makes mental institutions rich pickings for film-makers. One Flew …
Film Review: Bait
For thousands of years coastal dwellers have relied on fishing to put food on the table and earn a living. Whilst many traditional fishermen have seen their livelihoods destroyed by commercial trawlers, those remaining have practically been wiped out by tough economic conditions and a competitive global marketplace. Fishing villages, if they’re lucky, have sometimes …
Film Review: Memory: The Origins of Alien
Not only is Alien one of the most important post-war sci-fi and horror films, it also contains a scene which will forever live in the minds of cinemagoers. The success of Ridley Scott’s film, and its sequels, ensured its iconography became enshrined within popular culture and celluloid mythology. As with many classic films there’s a …
Film Review: Feedback
In a pattern which has been repeated time and again, over decades and centuries, toxic masculinity is a continuing scourge on our society. It’s only now coming to light, for some men at least, the true cost of this pattern of behaviour and abuse. One exacerbated most recently by the ‘laddish’ culture of the ‘90s …
Blu-Ray Review: The Ear
Living under an oppressive regime essentially means spending your life in a constant state of anxiety and trepidation. Those citizens residing in communist countries during the Cold War faced a constant barrage of propaganda and indoctrination. You never knew who was listening. Could never be at ease. Friends and neighbours would inform on each other. …
Blu-ray Review: Do The Right Thing
Spike Lee is one of the most powerful political voices in black American film-making. During the late 1980s and early 1990s he released a string of films which either challenged or amused. Often both. The likes of Malcolm X, She’s Gotta Have It, Mo’ Better Blues and Jungle Fever made him a household name. However, …