James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari (2019) feels strangely like an artefact from a bygone age, when movie studios would spend a reasonable amount of money making an adult drama with a talented director and some popular stars, a crisply-plotted screenplay, and glossy … Continue reading REVIEW: Ford v Ferrari (2019)
Chloé (Marine Vacth) is 25-year-old former model living in Paris. She suffers badly from anxiety and depression. She feels constant stomach pain that does not have a physical diagnosis. She is referred to a therapist named Paul (Jérémie Renier), but … Continue reading REVIEW: Double Lover (2017)
Remakes are a standard part of Hollywood production. In a hunt for successful projects, it makes sense to reproduce an already tried-and-tested formula – or to rely on a pre-existing brand proposition and get a head-start on marketing. The first … Continue reading REVIEW: Halloween (2007)
Following the death of his mother, 13 year-old Fin (Ed Oxenbould) has retreated into a fantasy world of butterflies and other insects. Meanwhile his father Al (Ewen Leslie) drowns his sorrows in a sea of one-night stands and ill-advised short-term … Continue reading REVIEW: The Butterfly Tree (2017)
Yoji Yamada is one of the most significant film directors in Japan. While he may lack the profile of earlier, critically adored filmmaker like Ozu, Mizoguchi, or Akira Kurosawa – or indeed contemporary favourites like Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation) or … Continue reading REVIEW: The Little House (2014)
I have a complicated relationship with Man of Steel, Zack Snyder’s 2013 big screen reboot of Superman. In the cinema I liked it, albeit with some caveats. On home video I felt the other way around: that those earlier caveats crippled the … Continue reading REVIEW: Man of Steel (2013)
Hazuki (Sayu Kubota) and Aoi (Minori Hagiwara) are Japanese high school students. Despite attending the same classes, they may as well live in different worlds. Hazuki is in the popular crowd of bitchy queen bees, although her position there is … Continue reading REVIEW: Hello Goodbye (2016)
Qing Ting (Liu Yongfang) is a young Chinese woman who leaves the security of a Buddhist temple for a job in a large-scale dairy farm. It is there she meets Ke Fan (Su Shangqing), a rebellious and angry young man. … Continue reading REVIEW: Dragonfly Eyes (2018)
1997 still seems a strange year for Hollywood. For much of the year there seemed to be a growing lesson for the American film industry. The summer was filled with costly misfires: Batman & Robin, The Postman, and particularly Jan de Bont’s disastrous Speed … Continue reading REVIEW: As Good As It Gets (1997)
11 year-old Mexican Estrella (Paola Lara) finds herself living on the street when her mother is kidnapped by the terrifying Huascas criminal gang. She is soon taken in by a gang of homeless young boys, but their lives come into … Continue reading REVIEW: Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017)
