Film
DVD Review: Goal of the Dead
With all the World Cup excitement it seems as thought football has been dominating most people’s lives over the last few weeks. Football fans are sometimes perceived as mindless idiots, but in Goal of the Dead directors Thierry Poiraud and Benjamin Rocher take that slur to another level. Paris are headed to play an end …
DVD Review: Pulp: A Film about Life, Death and Supermarkets
Whilst most of the band prefer shopping at Waitrose, Pulp: A Film about Life, Death and Supermarkets feels more like Morrisons fayre than its up-market sibling. Florian Habicht’s film is perfectly affable and enjoyable to a point, but suffers from having an identity crisis; caught between a concert film and straight documentary. It ends up …
Blu-ray Review: Absentia
There are a depressingly large amount of uninspiring, lazy and just plain bad horror films made. The proliferation of cheap technology has made it progressively easier for anyone to have a go at making films on a small budget. Absentia was funded though Kickstarter and cost a mere $70,000, and whilst there’s some interesting ideas …
Film Season Preview: The Cinema of Childhood
The Cinema of Childhood comes to the Showroom Cinema in Sheffield in July. Curated by eminent film scholar and filmmaker Mark Cousins, the season will be touring around the UK until the end of the year. It’s a unique opportunity to see wonderful films about childhood which have rarely or never been seen in the …
DVD Review: The Night is Young
With the release of Mauvais Sang (oddly named The Night is Young for English speaking audiences), Leos Carax confirmed his place as one of France’s most inventive and creative young directors, and a leading light in the Cinema du look movement. It’s beautifully inventive and creative, moving away from the imitation of Boy Meets Girl …
Film Festival Preview: Sheffield Doc/Fest – Part 3
Sheffield Doc/Fest is the premiere event in the Sheffield calendar. Taking place between 7-12 June, it’s one of the biggest and most renowned documentary film festivals in the world. Along with some of the best new documentaries expect live music, outdoor screenings and many accompanying events and talks. The last part of our preview focuses …
DVD Review: Generation Iron
Sometimes, from seemingly out of nowhere, a documentary really takes me by surprise. I’m really not a fan of bodybuilding and quite frankly can’t fathom why people would want to do it. Back in 1977 Pumping Iron first shed light on the world of bodybuilding and was the first glimpse the world had of a …
DVD Review: Hari-Kiri: Death of a Samurai
In 1963 Masaki Kobayashi won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes for his film Harakiri. There’s nothing quite like the word “remake” to send a wave of fear through your average film obsessive, but nothing much phases Takashi Miike. After building a reputation in extreme Asian cinema, the prolific director has settled down over the …
Film Review: Fading Gigolo
I never thought I’d see Woody Allen act again. He’s already replaced himself in his own movies with the likes of Owen Wilson and Jesse Eisenberg. What John Turturro did to lure Allen out in front of the camera again can only be imagined. Maybe it was the promise of filming in New York and …
DVD Review: The Chris Marker Collection
Cast you mind back to a time before the internet. One of the only ways to discover what wonders the world held in store was through the medium of documentary. Writer, photographer, documentary film maker, multimedia artist and film essayist, Chris Marker was a man of many talents. Associated with the Left Bank Cinema movement, …