EEFF Review: Punk Voyage
In 2012, a door was opened into a strange universe. A domain only known to a small but vocal number of initiates. The phenomenon that is Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät, Finland’s most bad-ass punk band, were introduced to the world in the brilliant Punk Syndrome. Pertti, Kari, Toni and Sami taught us to avoid pedicures at …
Blu-Ray Review: The Whispering Star/The Sion Sono
Sion Sono must be one of the hardest working directors currently ploughing his own unique and occasionally unwanted furrow in Japanese cinema. His films are usually, without fail, loud, brash, confrontational and unsettling. He revels in bright colours, bloodshed and a taste for the perverse. All these factors make his new film so unexpected and …
Film Review: Western
Globalization has inexorably changed the face of the world. Since the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, the membership of the (now) European Union has grown from six states to twenty-eight (for a year, at least). The rapid expansion east to incorporate former Soviet Bloc countries has led to a huge wave of …
Film Review: The Titan
As human beings, we seem to be doing our level best to destroy our planet as fast as we can. Any measures to slow-down climate change or which try and preserve the Earth for future generations seem to be swiftly countered by the interests of big business. Once we’ve finally raped our world of every …
Film Review: Even When I Fall
Two of the biggest social problems in the modern world are those of people trafficking and modern slavery. There are networks of criminal gangs who smuggle the innocent across borders in what is now one of the most profitable illegal industries. Whilst much of the recent focus in the news has been concentrated on the …
Film Review: A Gentle Creature
The spectre of authoritarianism, totalitarianism and dictatorships has cast a pall over much of Eastern European literature and film-making for generations. It has created some dour, depressing and downbeat work. The likes of Kafka, Gogol and Dostoevsky often focussed on corruption and the layered inanity of unmitigated bureaucracy. Sergey Loznitsa’s new film, A Gentle Creature, …
EEFF Review: Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts
The Wild West may be a long-forgotten and largely fictionalised part of America’s past, but its mythology and tropes still captivate film-makers today. However, whilst American society has left (most of) that period of its history behind, many of the characteristics of that time are still at play in less developed countries. Indonesia, for example, …
Incoming: Custody
After a bitter divorce, Miriam (Drucker) and Antoine (Ménochet) battle for sole custody of their son, Julien (Gioria). Miriam claims the father is violent but lacks proof. Antoine accuses her of manipulating their son for her own ends. Both sides seem to be hiding something; the truth is buried in deceit and jealousy. When the …
Full Frame Review: Capturing the Flag
American politics has been in a state of flux for the last few years, culminating with the surprise victory of Donald Trump to become the 45th President of the United States of America. However, the legitimacy of his win has been called into question on several counts. Most recently due to the power of outside …
Incoming: Ghost Stories
Phillip Goodman, professor of psychology, arch-skeptic, the one-man ‘belief buster’ – has his rationality tested to the hilt when he receives a letter apparently from beyond the grave. His mentor Charles Cameron, the ‘original’ TV parapsychologist went missing fifteen years before, presumed dead and yet now he writes to Goodman saying that the pair must …