FIlm Review
Film Review: The Swordsman
The legend of the lone swordsman has etched itself into both history and popular culture within Japan. Today, this motif still fills the pages of Manga, occupies myriad television series (both animated and live action) and of course regular features on cinema screens. Indeed, some of the most memorable depictions have come in motion pictures. …
Film Review: Great White
I don’t think anyone who has seen Jaws will hear the first bars of the theme without a shiver running down their spine. Spielberg created a film which made a whole generation think twice about whether it’s safe to go back into the water. It spawned a number of imitations and inspired a raft of …
Film Review: The Auschwitz Escape
The Holocaust was undoubtedly the lowest point in modern European history. Hitler’s ‘final solution’ was an abomination which is hard to comprehend in the early twenty-first century. An inherently evil act of sheer callousness and hatred. To the shame of the Allies, it took heroic acts of bravery to expose the full extent of the …
Film Review: Some Kind of Heaven
Located in central Florida, The Villages is the largest retirement community in the world. On the face of it this shiny happy ‘Disneyland for retirees’ seems like some kind of utopia. With a wealth of facilities, activities and different neighbourhoods, there’s something for everyone. The ‘resort’ is consistently the fastest growing metropolitan area in the …
Film Review: Paper Spiders
Mental health, or the lack of it, was probably the biggest challenge facing health authorities across the First World even before the pandemic hit. The issue has become even more pressing given the number of lockdowns, job losses and bereavements suffered over the last year across the globe. However, portrayals of mental illness on the …
Film Review: Betrayed
While every country which was occupied by the Nazis during World War II collaborated and accepted German authority to differing extents, not many (if any) came out of looking particularly good. Much of this has been lost, or more likely buried, in history. Norway is no exception. The Wehrmacht arrived in April 1940 and left …
Film Review: Cowboys
Whilst much of today’s dialogue around trans rights is toxic and couched in the homophobic rhetoric of the 1970s and 1980s, slowly but surely more and more people seem to understand that not everyone is born into and stays in a specific biological sex. The path to acceptance is a slow and painful one, for …
Film Review: Apples
Hot on the heels of the 2008 financial crisis and spearheaded by Yorgos Lanthimos’s Dogtooth, the Greek ‘weird wave’ has been one of the more unlikely cinematic movements of the 21st century. Whilst the Athenian has been its most successful cog in the new wave, he is by no means alone. Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Attenburg …
Film Review: Charlatan
Whilst never receiving the credit she undoubtedly deserves Agnieszka Holland has enjoyed a long and illustrious career. Born shortly after the end of World War II, she began her career as an assistant director to two of the Polish greats; Krzysztof Zanussi and Andrzej Wajda. Holland has made a number of films spanning five decades, …
Film Review: 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Bigfoot
Throughout history the world has been full of mythical and legendary creatures. Whilst most have been widely debunked by science and technology, there are some which still remain popular amongst certain groups. The Sasquatch, or Bigfoot to his/her friends, is an ape-like creature which makes its home in the forests of North American. Like the …