FIlm Review
Film Review: Night Caller
Today’s modern multiplex horrors are a long way from the video nasties of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Everything is polished to perfection, with the best directors and actors money can buy, and there’s plenty of the green stuff. Whereas cheap and nasty horrors may look low budget, but they often involve a lot …
Film Review: Foxhole
The one thing you don’t normally see depicted in fictional (or factual, for that matter) accounts of war is the sheer terror and confusion of combat situations. Different eras brought their own unique challenges, but chaos and doubt are dangerous when you’re fighting on the frontlines. Logistics and tactics rely on good lines of communication. …
Film Review – The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson
As Europeans began to colonise the new world, myths and legends began to spring up around a number of figures. Tales of outlaws, lawmen and folk heroes travelled across vast expanses of land through word of mouth. While exaggeration and embellishment were par for the course, there is usually an element of truth involved. These …
Film Review: Savage Waters
Animals, by our nature, are curious creatures. Born to explore. To sniff that new scent. Eat that strange smelly thing on the floor. Some are braver than others, but we all learn through experience and being taught. Humans might like to think we’re superior, but when it comes down to it there are far fewer …
Film Review: Arica
As the climate crisis worsens by the day, much more attention is being paid to how we manage waste; nuclear, domestic and industrial. While major corporations and government like to boast about meeting green targets, if you dig a little deeper things become very muddied. Detritus is often shipped abroad in order to be processed, …
Film Review: The Will To See
It’s really difficult to establish reliable numbers, which is worrying in itself, but there is something like forty ongoing wars or conflicts happening right now (although definitions differ). These take the form of major wars, insurrections, civil wars and insurgencies. While the international media has had its camera firmly trained on Ukraine for most of …
Film Review: The Velvet Queen
This planet is truly a wonderous place. Created by a number of happy coincidences and a lot of luck. The fact we, humans, are here at all is as close to a miracle as you’re ever likely to see. Just the sheer diversity of flora and fauna is almost beyond comprehension. That’s even before you …
Film Review – Ennio: The Maestro
While actors, directors, cinematographers and writers usually get most of the credit, it should never be underestimated just how important a soundtrack is to the success of a film. Done well, music elevates a scene. Alerts the audience to what’s coming next and sets-up the moment. Most of our favourite movie memories are intrinsically linked …
Film Review – Virus: 32
While there’s always been a certain amount of horror conjured-up by the idea of a virus-driven pandemic, the last few years have brought the prospect into stark relief. Not that COVID-19 turns its victims into mindless zombies wild with bloodlust or a hunger for brains, but it’s still very scary. Making films based on this …
Film Review: Playground
I think most of us still have vague memories of our first day or days at school. Especially if we’ve moved around and have endured several. Even if they’re now just abstract feelings of terror. Everything seemed so big and scary, and that wasn’t just the older kids! There was a system. A hierarchy. One …