Incoming: The Salesman
Asghar Farhadi returns with an Oscar-winning exploration of the potent power of pride, guilt and shame. The future looks promising for amateur actors Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) as they prepare for opening night on their production of Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’. However, when dangerous work on a neighbouring building forces …
DVD Review: Mum’s List
Grief, suffering and loss are three of the most powerful emotional triggers in cinema. There have been many films tackling the subject of terminal illness over the years. However, it’s a subject which, for obvious reasons, can get mired in melodrama. Where it’s done well, for instance Love Story, Biutiful, The Bucket List or A …
Film Review: The Olive Tree
Socially critical films fare best in times of economic strive and when the political right and nationalism are on the rise. We’re in the midst of one such period and now starting to see a rise in reactionary cinema. The most prominent film-makers currently doing this kind of work are the Dardenne Brothers in Belgium …
Incoming: Personal Shopper
Writer/director Olivier Assayas (Clouds Of Sils Maria) returns with Personal Shopper, an ethereal and mysterious ghost story. Kristen Stewart stars as Maureen, a young American living in Paris and working as a high-fashion personal shopper to the stars. She is also a spiritual medium and, grieving the recent death of her twin brother, haunts his …
Blu-Ray Review: The Chamber
Whether you suffer from claustrophobia or not, it’s a good bet that you feel uncomfortable in a confined space. Film makers have often played on this fear. And a small set is perfect for directors with a meagre budget. However, this doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. Aliens, The Thing, Das Boot, The Descent, …
Incoming: Get Out
Now that Chris and his girlfriend have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate. At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behaviour as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a …
Film Review: Gleason
As anyone who has spent five days in a dark room at a documentary film festival will attest, it can be extremely gruelling experience. Whilst death is never far from the screen, it’s those who live and endure suffering who leave the profoundest impact on me. This is definitely the case with Clay Tweel’s new …
Blu-Ray Review: Two Rode Together
Whilst the buddy movie may seem like a fairly recent phenomenon, it’s a devise which has cut through genre and era since the early days of cinema. Westerns have seen several famous double-acts over the years. Most famously Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, Wyatt Earp & ‘Doc’ Holliday, ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok & ‘Calamity Jane’ …
Incoming: A Silent Voice
Shoko, a young Deaf student, transfers to a new school where she is bullied by Shoya for her hearing impairment. While Shoya originally leads the class in bullying Shoko, the class soon turn on him for his lack of compassion. When they leave elementary school, Shoko and Shoya do not speak to each other again, …
Film Review: Uncertain
Uncertain is a town with a, well, uncertain future. On the Texan boarder with Louisiana, it has a population which numbers a mere 94 disparate souls. It’s not a place you chance upon or stop off on the way to somewhere else. If you find Uncertain, you’re either lost are there for a reason. Quite …