Film Festival
LFF Review: Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
In today’s world of gastropubs and artisanal gin bars, it’s easy to forget the role these establishments have played for hundreds of years of human history. The bar, pub, inn, tavern, whatever you want to call it, has served many purposes. They’ve been community hubs, places for friends to meet, meeting house for clubs and …
LFF Review – Rose: A Love Story
What would you do for love? Just how far would you go? It’s a question which has fascinated and troubled writers and storytellers for hundreds of years. If you look to the core of most stories, the ‘l’ word will almost always be there. Whether that’s through the sphere of romance, friendship or family. It’s …
Grimmfest Review: Ten Minutes to Midnight
There’s something about late night radio talk shows which seems to attract the wild animals out there. The lonely, the troubled and those who live around the fringes of life. The creatures of the night seem drawn in like moths to a flame. Both at the end of a radio and behind a microphone. This …
LFF Review: Supernova
Anyone who has experience of a friend or relative suffering from dementia will know what an absolutely horrendous condition it is. It’s an illness which comes in all shapes and sizes but its impact is never less than devastating. Seeing someone you love gradually (or rapidly) fade away is traumatic. As scientific breakthroughs allow us …
LFF Review: Eyimofe (This is My Desire)
To even use the term ‘African cinema’ when describing the diversity and richness of myriad national film industries scattered across a huge continent, is to say the least slightly patronising. However, given the relative lack of exposure we have to it in Europe, it’s easy to slip into lazy generalisations. Whilst it’s a struggle for …
Grimmfest Review: Urubú
If there’s one thing that the political turmoil and polarisation of the last few years have demonstrated it’s that we’re increasingly living in socio-economic bubbles. Surrounding ourselves with likeminded people. Living, working and socialising is these rather homogeneous communities. We might hear news stories or tales of how other people live, but rarely engage, empathise …
LFF Review: Wildfire
Whilst ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland might be over (although there are worrying signs that this isn’t the case) it doesn’t mean that those who lived through them can just move on. That’s the natural reaction. Ignore the past and look to the future. It’s something many countries have tried, but refusing to confront our …
Grimmfest Review: Triggered
One of the great joys of watching genre cinema is the amount of films where a bunch of suspiciously model-like and relentlessly annoying ‘teenagers’ come to a succession of bloody and brutal ends. There seems to be an almost infinite number of scenarios you can put a group of friends through before gleefully starting to …
LFF Review: Wolfwalkers
Whilst animation has always been popular with cinema audiences, until recently it was only really Disney films which attracted mainstream attention. With the rise in popularity of Pixar, Studio Ghibli and Dreamworks, it’s a genre which has become commonplace on the big screen. However, it’s often the smaller studios which produce the most innovative and …
LFF Review: Mogul Mowgli
Of all the British actors who have made their breakthrough over the past decade, it’s perhaps Riz Ahmed who has made the biggest impression. Since coming to prominence in Four Lions back in 2010, he has starred in a number of films and TV series, including Nightcrawler, The Night Of, City of Tiny Lights and …