DVD Review: All My Good Countrymen
Politics and Eastern European film-making went hand in hand for many decades. This was sometimes at the behest of the authorities but the best examples are when film makers use their voice to criticise. Often considered to be the ‘most Czech’ of his contemporaries in terms of inward focus and one of the main influences …
Film Review: Gabo: The Creation of Gabriel García Márquez
If you’re making lists of the greatest authors of the 20th century it’s likely that the name Gabriel García Márquez will be near the top. Whilst it would probably also include Orwell, Greene, Joyce, Fitzgerald and Woolf, ‘Gabo’ is arguably the most loved novelist who doesn’t write in the English language. One Hundred Years of …
Incoming: Bridge of Spies
Bridge of Spies tells the story of James Donovan, a Brooklyn lawyer who finds himself thrust into the center of the Cold War when the CIA sends him on the near-impossible task to negotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot. Bridge of Spies is out in cinemas on Friday.
Blu-ray Review: The Reflecting Skin
The Reflecting Skins was originally going to be called American Gothic which would have succinctly summed-up what to expect from Philip Ridley’s film. It possesses all the strangeness, mystery and surreal elements you’d expect from that title but also the rural American backdrops and sensibility. The beautiful sun-drenched corn fields are counterpointed against the inner …
Incoming: Carol
New York 1952. Carol is elegant, sophisticated, wealthy and married. Therese is just starting out in life, unsure of who she wants to be. A chance encounter in a Manhattan department store sparks an extraordinary friendship between these two women. Carol is caught in a bitter divorce and a custody battle for her daughter, but …
Film Review: Unbranded
The battle for control and access to public land is one that has been raging around the world for decades. In the United States wild horses are allowed to run free on public land, but there’s a problem. These mustangs require grazing all year round, and that’s where the issues begin. The population is managed …
Film Review: Star*Men
People are often brought together by a shared passion. In the case of Roger, Donald, Nick and Wal that love was for astronomy and looking at the stars. As post-doctoral researchers the group met at Caltech fifty years ago. It began a friendship that would last the rest of their lives and start their individual …
Film Review: Güeros
Mexican cinema was pretty quiet on the world stage for over a decade but recently there’s been some green shoots of recovery. Whilst not reaching the heights of Y Tu Mamá También and Amores perros the likes of Biutiful, Heli and Light After Darkness have all made an impact on the festival circuit. However, Alonso Ruizpalacios’ …
Incoming: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 now brings the franchise to its powerful final chapter in which Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) realizes the stakes are no longer just for survival – they are for the future. With the nation of Panem in a full scale war, Katniss confronts President Snow (Donald Sutherland) in the …
Film Review: Hand Gestures
There’s nothing quite like real craftsmanship. Even with all the technological advances we’ve seen since the industrial revolution some things remain the same. In order to create a sculpture in bronze, it is necessary to take the same steps taken in the fifth century BC for the Riace bronzes. The process behind creating these sculptures …