Film Festival
Fantastic Fest Review: A Life on the Farm
There was a time, not too long ago, when farming was seen as a vocation where good honest toil, a bit of luck, and fair weather would set a man up for life. It’s a backbreaking job, with long hours and no days off, but there’s something inherently satisfying about growing something with your own …
Fantastic Fest Review: Country Gold
The country music scene is, in a way, a microcosm of the wider industry, but is so distinct it’s basically a separate entity. While it originated in the 1920s from the music of working-class America, today it’s a huge multi-billion-dollar money-making machine. Now in its sixth generation, while the landscape has changed in many ways …
Fantastic Fest Review: Mister Organ
As the saying goes, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. This is what happens in the best documentaries. Those films which start out as one thing and suddenly morph into an entirely different animal. Which defy expectations. These are the rare gems which take an audience on a journey. In 2016, Tickled did precisely that. …
Fantastic Fest Review: Everyone Will Burn
Children are scary. Small versions of adult people who seem to have total confidence in their approach of constantly asking questions. They seem to know too much. They probably do. The concept of an ‘evil’ child has been used well in genre cinema. Whether that’s Damien in The Omen, the twins in The Shining or …
Fantastic Fest Review: A Wounded Fawn
You may never have heard of The Erinyes, but it’s likely that you know them by another name – The Furies. While Greek mythology is full of disturbing and alarming characters, few are more compelling than the ‘three’. These vengeful female deities have sworn an oath to exact punishment on men who abuse their power …
Fantastic Fest Review: Missing
Everyone deals with grief in their own way. Some people disappear into their own heads, withdrawing from life and shutting everyone out. Others look for ways to deaden the pain, whether that’s through alcohol, drug abuse or something else. The loss of a loved one can drive a wedge between a family, which makes sitting …
FrightFest Review: The Leech
There are two kinds of people. There are those who constantly give; always ready to help out their fellow man. Who dedicate their life to a mantra of altruism. Helping those less fortunate than themselves. On the other hand, there are those members of society who expect others to provide for them. Who constantly take, …
Fantasia Review: Incredible but True
Let’s be honest, there are very few of us who don’t have a midlife crisis in one way or another. For most people it might entail buying a completely new wardrobe or a sudden interest in grime music, but others take it to the nth degree. Almost having the equivalent of a nervous breakdown, leaving …
Fantasia Review – Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin
There are few directors who have been so overlooked, misunderstood and derided as Jean Rollin. While he was classed as part of the Euro cult movement, the Frenchman didn’t easily fit into any genre or box. His work has often been dismissed as simply sexploitation or even pornography. In fairness, under the pseudonyms of Michel …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: The Joys and Sorrows of Young Yuguo
Obsession is a strange bird. While most people seem to flit in and out of this kind of myopic tunnel vision, for a small minority it never falters. It becomes something which takes over their entire life. Occupies every waking moment. It’s all they can ever think about. A dream that they simply must realise, …