Film
Celluloid Screams Review: Tragedy Girls
For someone of my age, the online habits of Millennials can be more than slightly perplexing. It wasn’t until recently that I realised Facetime was actually a thing and not just a way of talking about social media without namechecking a particular site. I’m not alone. Hollywood has struggled with concepts of new media, language …
Blu-Ray Review: Hammer Volume One: Fear Warning
Hammer Volume One: Fear Warning brings together four Hammer horror productions released in the first half of the 1960s. They are four very different tales of fear, curses, madness and the supernatural. In a genre and period when female actors were usually restricted to playing the victim or the damsel in distress, these films afforded …
Blu-Ray Review: Witchhammer
Co-founder of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, whilst Otakar Vávra was a highly prolific film-maker over a number of decades, he’s not well-known outside of his native Czech Republic. One of the reasons for this was possibly because he was considered a sell-out by many of his peers due to his willingness to …
Incoming: Perfect Blue
Mima Kirigoe (Junko Iwao) has a bright future ahead of her when she leaves the chart-topping pop trio “CHAM!” to pursue an acting career. When a role in a violent crime drama courts controversy and a bizarre blog starts detailing every aspect of her life however, Mima begins to fall apart and her associates start …
Blu-Ray Review: Blood Simple
Joel and Ethan Coen are two of the most unique film-makers working in American cinema today. They burst onto the scene with Fargo and The Big Lebowski and have never looked back. They’ve subsequently had hits with O Brother, Where Art Thou?, No Country for Old Men, Hail, Caesar and Inside Llewyn Davis. However, whilst …
Blu-Ray Review: Fragment of Fear
During the 1960s, David Hemmings was one of the most well-known faces of British acting. After his big break in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup, he became a pin-up and was regularly to be seen in the gossip columns of newspapers and magazines. Capitalising on this success, he starred in Barbarella, Camelot and The Charge of the …
Celluloid Screams Review: Better Watch Out
Take a look on the high street and you could be mistaken in thinking that the festive season has already begun. Christmas for most people is a time of celebration, but for some of us in can feel more like a horror movie. Thankfully, we have the sub-genre of Christmas horror to fall back on. …
Incoming: Breathe
Handsome, adventurous and brilliant, Robin (Andrew Garfield), has his whole life ahead of him when he is paralysed by polio. Against all advice, Robin’s wife Diana (Claire Foy) brings him home; where her devotion, intimacy and witty determination transcends his disability and sets him free. Together they refuse to be imprisoned by his suffering; transforming …
Blu-Ray Review: Zoology
Individualism isn’t a characteristic necessarily valued in many societies. Indeed, people who are considered different are often viewed as strange, outsiders, weirdos, perverts or troublemakers. The rise of nationalism around the world has led to a rise in conformity. This is especially the case in Russia. With Vladimir Putin (in all but name) controlling most …
Celluloid Screams Review: M.F.A.
The recent horrific revelations spilling out of Hollywood about Harvey Weinstein seem to have come as a shock to many. However, the abuses within the film industry have been an open secret for decades. Most people have chosen to ignore it, accept it or bury their heads in the sand. The same can be said …