Blu-Ray Review: Ronin
Before he was abducted by aliens and brainwashed into making incredibly bad comedy films, Robert De Niro owned the title of being the greatest and most iconic actor of his generation. Performances in Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Cape Fear, Heat, Casino and Goodfellas ensured he was sat on top of the tree. By the time …
Blu-Ray Review: The Transfiguration
Whilst today’s pop-culture depictions of vampires seem to be more about Twilight and The Vampire Diaries than Nosferatu and Bram Stoker, there’s room for a wide array of interpretations of the legend. The Transfiguration riffs off Near Dark and Let the Right One In. However, whilst the fascination centres-on the vampire myth, this is only …
Incoming: Atomic Blonde
The crown jewel of Her Majesty’s Secret Intelligence Service, Agent Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) is equal parts spycraft, sensuality and savagery, willing to deploy any of her skills to stay alive on her impossible mission. Sent alone into Berlin to deliver a priceless dossier out of the destabilized city, she partners with embedded station chief …
Film Review: Tom of Finland
Historically, artists haven’t always held the most prestigious or reputable positions within societies. It’s hard to imagine what it’s like to be a gay homoerotic artist living in a country where homosexuality is illegal. Touko Valio Laaksonen was arguably the most influential gay erotic artist of the 20th century. Over four decades he drew thousands …
Incoming: The Ghoul
Chris is a homicide detective called to London to investigate a strange double murder. Both victims appear to have continued moving towards their assailant despite multiple gunshots to the face and chest. On a hunch, and with the help of an old colleague – and former girlfriend – Chris decides to go undercover as a …
Incoming: Maudie
Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke star in Aisling Walsh’s hotly tipped drama, a biopic of Maud Lewis, who despite suffering from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, became one of Canada’s most celebrated outsider artists. Maudie is out in cinemas from Friday.
Film Review: The Event (Sobytie)
Modern day Russia has a long and tumultuous political and social history. Starting with Peter the Great, the Tsars ruled for almost two hundred years until the aristocracy was overthrown in the October Revolution. After a civil war, the Soviet Union was formed in 1922. In 1991, as the USSR was on the verge of …
Blu-Ray Review: The Music Room (Criterion Collection)
Whilst Bollywood dominates the Indian film industry, there’s much more to Bharata’s cinema than merely the conveyor belt of love, loss, song and satire. The greatest Indian film-maker of all time, is without doubt, Satyajit Ray. His masterpiece is indubitably The Apu Trilogy. The story of a young Bengali boy growing up in the early …
Film Review: Forever Pure
Whilst, to a large degree, racism within the game of football may have almost disappeared in most of Western Europe, the same cannot be said when you travel further east. Hatred and intolerance is almost endemic in many clubs, which only mirrors the culture within wider society. Israel is a country with many problems, not …
Incoming: Land of Mine
As World War II comes to an end, a group of German POWs – boys rather than men – are captured by the Danish army and forced to engage in a deadly task: to defuse and clear land mines from the Danish coastline. With little or no training, the boys soon discover that the war …