Soda Pictures
Film Review: Innocence of Memories
Orhan Pamuk will be a familiar name to many and is widely regarded as one of the best authors of the last decade. In 2006 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Istanbul in 1952, Pamuk’s life has revolved around the Turkish capital and it has been an integral part of his …
Blu-ray Review: The Reflecting Skin
The Reflecting Skins was originally going to be called American Gothic which would have succinctly summed-up what to expect from Philip Ridley’s film. It possesses all the strangeness, mystery and surreal elements you’d expect from that title but also the rural American backdrops and sensibility. The beautiful sun-drenched corn fields are counterpointed against the inner …
Film Review: Zarafa
After (too many) years of overblown CGI, there thankfully seems to be growing trend towards hand-drawn animation. Of recent note are Ghibli’s beautiful The Tale of Princess Kaguya and Tomm Moore’s breathtaking Song of the Sea, which are two of the best films released this year. There’s a magic of human creation which simply cannot …
Film Review: By Our Selves
John Clare was a romantic-era nature poet and compulsive wanderer who wrote prolifically over a period of 70 years. His work was fuelled by a sense of looming madness which followed him throughout his life. Whilst many poets of the early 19th Century were considered gentlemen and dined at the highest tables, Clare came from …
Film Review: The Second Mother
Class barriers are present and thriving all over the world, but they’re often unspoken. The rich employ nannies to bring up their children whilst those employed to care for the progeny of others often have to leave their own offspring. Normally the justification behind this is money, but as Anna Muylaert’s new film A Second …
Film Review: The Wonders
The Wonders, the beautiful new film from Alice Rohrwacher, derives its power and majesty from a beautiful simplicity. In a world where cinema audiences increasingly demand to be emotionally jolted, it never goes further than a raised voice. The Wonders signifies change, not only as a coming of age film but also the decline of …
Film Review: The Reunion
I for one will never go to a school or class reunion. The whole concept of meeting up with people you never liked enough to keep in touch with and playing the happiness game is totally repugnant to me. Swedish Artist and filmmaker Anna Odell had an unhappy school life and was bullied. She wanted …
Film Review: Shooting For Socrates
We love to back the underdog, especially when it comes to sport. Football has many tales of heroism, from FA Cup giant killings to the meteoric rise of the likes of Castel di Sangro. The World Cup is a particularly fertile ground for shocks, from Cameroon to South Korea there are endless examples of David …
Film Review – Phoenix
The main events of World War II have been extensively documented, but unless you were there at the time it’s hard to understate the fallout following the end of the war, which carried on for decades. Much of the finger-pointing and animosity centred around collaboration. The lowest moment in human history, The Holocaust, claimed the …
Film Review: Altman
Robert Altman was one of the most important, challenging and visionary American directors off the last 40 years. Despite myriad setbacks and periods in the wilderness, he made some of the most influential films in modern American cinema. Despite never winning an Oscar for any of his movies, he was recognised by the Academy with …