Dogwoof
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: River
Regardless of our reliance on it for survival, as a rule humans take the natural world around them for granted. Little thought is expended on the impact our daily lives have on it and whether one day it simply won’t be there for us in the same way. The air we breathe, the land we …
Film Review: Torn
Countless generations have been drawn by the call of the mountains. To scale the summit of mighty ice-covered peaks and reach for the sky. We’re somehow programmed to want to explore. To go places where no one else has ever been before. It’s a challenge. A test of human endurance. To escape the billions of …
Film Review: Citizen Ashe
The sport of tennis has always been popular, but it wasn’t until the late 1970s that it became the huge money-spinning business it is today. That was largely down to the characters who dominated the game during that period, such as Björn Borg, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe. In many ways, it was a time …
EIFF Review: The Gig Is Up
As long as there has been the concept of ownership, workers have been abused and exploited by their employers. Whilst slavery might well now be illegal in most of the world, that doesn’t mean to say that slave labour or the equivalent of indentured servitude doesn’t still exist. Indeed, whilst the industrial revolution and technological …
Film Review – WeWork: or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn
If there’s been one benefit from living through a pandemic it’s the realisation that ‘office work’ doesn’t necessarily have to be done in an actual office. Millions of people, all around the world, have enjoyed the benefits of working from home. Happy with the increased flexibility this affords and being able to wear whatever they …
Film Review: The Lost Leonardo
Leonardo da Vinci was the most famous painter from the High Renaissance period but his skills spanned numerous technical and scientific disciplines. Despite his fame and the continued popularity of the Mona Lisa, there are less than twenty surviving paintings which can be definitely attributed to him. A sale of one of this small number …
Film Review: The Most Beautiful Boy in the World
The history of Hollywood is littered with tales of child actors who achieved fame early and then went off the rails, often disappearing entirely from public life. Sometimes, as was the case with Drew Barrymore, they manage to get their careers back on track, but more often than not they largely fade from the public …
Film Review: Last Man Standing
Nick Broomfield has been making documentaries for over five decades now. His style and idiosyncratic ways of working have been highly influential on many other filmmakers. The English filmmaker’s most high-profile documentaries have been about musicians. Kurt and Courtney caused controversy and was pulled from Sundance but it’s Biggie and Tupac which probably generated the …
Film Review: The Human Factor
The Arab-Israeli conflict can be traced back into distant history but in its current incarnation can probably be dated to 1948 and the establishment of the state of Israel. Wars, conflicts and regular skirmishes have been sporadically breaking out in the region ever since. Today, the focus is largely on the continuing hostilities between Israelis …