FIlm Review
Film Review: Spaceship
The teenage years are difficult time for adolescents trying to come with hormonal and physical changes. In the current age of Snapchat, social media and YouTube, it’s arguably never been harder. The urge to be different is often suppressed by the pressure to conform. In Alex Taylor’s debut feature Spaceship he takes all these youthful …
Film Review: The Levelling
For many obvious reasons, and a few slightly baffling ones, London remains the focal point of English cinema. On the rare occasions filmmakers heads out into the ‘wilds’, it all tends to devolve into a mess of stereotypes and prejudice. Occasionally, directors have the vision and insight to see past these and produce something truly …
Film Review: Harmonium
When considering Japanese cinema, the first things which spring to mind are likely to be samurais, Yakuza or devils. However, the Japanese have produced some incredibly powerful and touching family dramas and character studies. Most notably the work of the late great Yasujirō Ozu (Tokyo Story, Late Spring, An Autumn Afternoon), but also Kurosawa’s Ikuru …
Film Review: Heal the Living
It’s becoming more difficult by the day to find good in the world as everything seems to be going to Hell in a handcart. It’s easy to overlook every day acts of kindness when we’re bombarded with negative news 24 hours a day. Cinema has the ability to be introspective and focus on the beauty, …
Film Review: Suntan
It’s fair to say that Greece doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to cinema. There’s the occasional film which has been successful outside of Hellas, such as The Travelling Players, Stella or O Drakos, but these are few and far between. However, Greek cinema is currently having a really profitable period. This …
Film Review: The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki
I’m not a fan of boxing, and by extension, most films about boxing tend to leave me cold. However, it’s a sport which has produced some notable movies over the decades. Raging Bull is the obvious highlight, but the Rocky series demonstrates just how popular a sub-genre it can be. There’s been a recent resurgence, …
Film Review: Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo
For anyone old enough to remember, July 20 1969 will be a day indelibly etched on their memory. Ever since Eagle landed on the moon and Armstrong and Aldrin made one giant leap for mankind, astronauts have become celebrities. However, launching a successful space mission requires a huge team of people. The pilots are just …
Film Review: Neruda
Described by Gabriel García Márquez as the “the greatest poet of the 20th century”, Pablo Neruda was a figurehead for Communism in Chile. Born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, Neruda was also a politician and diplomat. Towards the end of his life he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but during the late 1940s …
Film Review: Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?
AIDS decimated gay communities in Europe and America during the 1980s and 1990s. Today, it’s estimated that over 36 million people around the world are currently living with HIV/AIDS. Whilst, the majority are based in Sub-Saharan Africa, it continues to have a global pandemic. There have been several powerful documentaries on the disease, including How …
Film Review: Don’t Knock Twice
The two leads in Don’t Knock Twice, the new film from Caradog W. James, have had distinctly different entrance points into genre cinema. Katee Sackhoff has starred in commercial horrors such as Oculus and White Noise: The Light. On the other hand, Lucy Boynton has featured in two staunchly independent films by Oz Perkins; February …