Nothing in global cinema is more culturally specific than comedy. I have written in the past about the Hong Kong comedy style known as ‘mo lei tau’, a sort of nonsensical and deliberately silly combination of wordplay, non-sequitur, and slapstick … Continue reading REVIEW: 92 Legendary La Rose Noire (1992)
For adolescent fetishists of half-naked Japanese women, there is Sion Sono’s The Virgin Psychics. For everybody else, it would be less irritating to simply watch some pornography. Sion Sono has established a strong and well-earned reputation as one of Japan’s most idosyncratic … Continue reading REVIEW: The Virgin Psychics (2015)
Miss is simply glorious. It is a French mainstream comedy-drama about a young person’s quest to win the Miss France beauty pageant. It does everything right. It finds comedy in characters and situations and not in mocking identities. It carries an … Continue reading REVIEW: Miss (2020)
Isabelle Huppert is easily one of the world’s most accomplished and talented actors. She is also one of its most versatile, having spread her long career across films as varied as French prestige dramas, Hollywood westerns, and even the South … Continue reading REVIEW: The Godmother (2020)
Year in and year out, we are always going to be flush with screen adaptations of William Shakespeare. In 2016 the BBC produced a made-for-television adaptation of his comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by David Kerr and adapted and produced … Continue reading REVIEW: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2016)
When it comes to directing films, Terry Jones (Monty Python’s Flying Circus) always struck me as a quiet achiever. While widely acclaimed as a comic actor, screenwriter, and historian, his directorial career sat in the shadows to a large extent. … Continue reading REVIEW: Erik the Viking (1989)
Up-and-coming attorney Tae Soo (Ahn Jae-hong) is given an opportunity for promotion within his firm – and all he has to do it take over the management of an ailing private zoo and bring it back to financial health within … Continue reading REVIEW: Secret Zoo (2020)
Time passes and we get old. Usually we only notice with specific triggers. A few weeks ago I watched a silent film, as I am occasionally wont to do. They are an underrated style of film that most audiences simply … Continue reading REVIEW: The Kid (1921)
‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Universal Amphitheatre. Well, here it is, the late 1970s, going on 1985. You know, so much of the music we hear today is pre-programmed electronic disco, we never get a chance … Continue reading “We’re on a mission from God” | The Blues Brothers (1980)
Let’s talk about Adam Sandler. Since his historic production deal with Netflix, which saw him star in a series of exclusive pictures for the global streamer, his profile seems somewhat dimished. We never see his face on movie posters at … Continue reading REVIEW: Murder Mystery (2019)
