Incoming: The Wind Rises
Jiro dreams of flying and designing beautiful airplanes. Nearsighted from a young age and thus unable to become a pilot, Jiro joins the aircraft division of a major Japanese engineering company in 1927. His genius is soon recognized, and become one of the world’s most accomplished airplane designers. Hayao Miyazaki brings his unique vision to …
DVD Review: Hobson’s Choice
David Lean is one of the greatest film directors this country has ever produced. When it comes to period dramas, Oliver Twist and Great Expectations normally take the plaudits, but as far as I’m concerned, I think Hobson’s Choice is his best. To celebrate its 60th anniversary of this wonderful film, Studio Canal are releasing …
Film Screening: The Punk Singer
Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of the punk band Bikini Kill and dance-punk trio Le Tigre, rose to national attention as the reluctant but never shy voice of the riot grrrl movement. She became one of the most famously outspoken feminist icons, a cultural lightning rod. Her critics wished she would just shut-up, and her fans …
DVD Review: Sisters
Brian de Palma is a director who wears his influences on his sleeve. Many of his later movies were influenced by the work of Alfred Hitchcock, but Sisters was the first of his films to obviously embody this imitation. Drawing heavily on Hitchcock’s Psycho and Rear Window, Sisters is by no means a mere copy, …
Film Review: Tracks
Tracks is an adaptation of Robyn Davidson’s memoir of the same name, chronicling the author’s nine-month journey from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean. Back in 1977 she decided to undertake the trek across the outback with just her dog and four camels. John Curran’s film is a more of a docudrama than a thriller, …
Incoming: A Thousand Times Good Night
Rebecca is one of the world’s top war photographers. On assignment while photographing a female suicide bomber group, she gets too near and is badly hurt in an explosion. Back home, another bomb drops. Her husband and daughters can no longer bear the thought of her dying on assignment in some faraway land. She is …
DVD Review: Wrinkles
Based on the award-winning comic by Paco Roca, Wrinkles is a very unique kind of European animated film. It reminds me in tone and structure of the wonderful When the Wind Blows, and left me feeling equally melancholy. The Spanish film is possibly the closest a Western animation has come to capturing the magic and …
DVD Review: Ace in the Hole (Masters of Cinema)
Masters of Cinema’s beautiful new transfer of Billy Wilder’s superb Ace in the Hole is an absolute treat. Whilst Wilder, one of the best directors of his generation, is better known for Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, Double Indemnity, The Seven Year Itch and Sunset Boulevard, he always considered Ace in the Hole to …
DVD Review: A Story of Yonosuke
Whilst Japanese cinema is widely known for the work of Akira Kurosawa, and to a lesser extent Yasujirō Ozu, latterly it’s become renowned for horror and extreme cinema. There’s always been a strong seem of independent film making in Japan, often under the Western radar, with only a few indie films making it over here …
DVD Review: Klown
I’m not sure whether it’s the cold or the enthusiastic participation in the consumption of hard liquor, but the Northern and Eastern Europeans have a very odd sense of humour. I remember watching a popular Russian family comedy franchise about a bunch of drunks who kept getting drunk and into bother, and wondering: “What on …