FIlm Review
Film Review: Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures
Art and controversy are regular bedfellows but occasionally an artist will create such a stir that it will resonate to a far greater audience than their work attracts. Robert Mapplethorpe did this but it wasn’t until after his death that he managed to achieve such popular notoriety. In Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s documentary, Mapplethorpe: …
Film Review: Louder Than Bombs
Joachim Trier is one of the most exciting and talented Scandinavian film directors of the last decade. Louder Than Bombs is only his third feature but it follows on from the highly acclaimed Reprise and Oslo, August 31st. The former is a study on young love, ambition and depression whilst the latter is a day …
Film Review: The Brand New Testament
There have always been religious films since the invention of motion pictures. Early films such as Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ and Cecil B DeMille’s King of Kings wetted audiences appetites of silent cinema audience. Since then, The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur and The Passion of Christ are probably the most well-known. In The …
The Passing (Yr Ymadawiad)
There are few more pleasurable treats for the ears than listening to the Welsh language (Cymraeg). With a resurgence in nationalism and talk of devolution, this decade has seen a revival in regional/national traditions and culture. This was epitomised by the celebrations around the 100th anniversary of Dylan Thomas’ birth last year and the release …
Film Review: Nasty Baby
On first glance Sebastián Silva’s new film, Nasty Baby, could be be anything from an art school project to the early work of Jim Jarmusch. Silva himself is a man of many talents. Not content with being an award-winning director, he’s also an actor, musician, artist and screenwriter. The film itself covers a range of …
Film Review: The Last Man on the Moon
For thousands of years man has dreamed of visiting the stars. Beginning in the mid 1950s, the rivalry between America and the Soviet Union, Capitalism and Communism, morphed itself into the Space Race. Whilst the USSR and Yuri Gagarin won the battle to put a man into space it was NASA who were the first …
Film Review: Couple In A Hole
Emotional trauma affects people in different ways, but the unexpected loss of a close family member can easily induce a psychological breakdown. Some people have a complete emotional collapse, some protect themselves by refusing to accept the truth and others simply snap. The latter is more frequently captured in films, often leading to a bloody …
Film Review: The Absent One
You’ve got to hand it to Scandinavians, they certainly know how to create compelling crime dramas. Nordic Noir dominates the crime sections of bookshops with the likes of Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbø becoming household names. The same can be said for TV. The Bridge, The Killing, Wallander and Borgen have set the …
Film Review: Iona
Tales of regret and paying the price for the deadly consequences of those actions taken in haste have graced cinema screens since the inception of motion pictures. We all have regrets and often we’re avoiding, if not running from, something or someone. Something about our roots always seems to pull us back eventually, especially when …
Film Review: Mojave
William Monahan made his name writing screenplays. His work on Body of Lies and Kingdom of Heaven was widely praised but it’s his treatment for The Departed which made him famous, receiving an Oscar for his troubles. Following a well-trodden path, Monahan moved behind the camera, but his first film, London Boulevard, only received mixed …