September 22 1995 saw the release of one of the most iconic American features of the decade. Seven, a serial killer thriller, was directed by David Fincher from an outstanding screenplay and played by a top-notch lead cast. The mainstream audience … Continue reading REVIEW: You Don’t Nomi (2019)
Or, to give its full title (that would play havoc with this website’s layout), Summer of Soul (or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). In 1969, New York’s Harlem played host to a series of six weekly concerts presented free … Continue reading REVIEW: Summer of Soul (2021)
The history and origins of electronic music receive a badly needed correction in Sisters with Transistors (2020), a new documentary feature directed by Lisa Rovner. Of course the mainstream history of electronic music’s pioneers is dominated by men. All mainstream histories seem dominated … Continue reading MIFF REVIEW: Sisters with Transistors (2020)
It is difficult to resist a documentary about food. Such films tend to make the mouth water with visual presentations of the most delightful restaurants and distinctive meals. This feels particularly the case in Japan, a country that has inspired … Continue reading MIFF Review: Come Back Anytime (2021)
A group of bus drivers from Dorset traditionally produce an annual amateur pantomime to raise money for charity. One year they elect to stage a theatrical adaptation of Ridley Scott’s 1979 science fiction horror classic Alien instead. That’s it: that’s the pitch. … Continue reading FANTASIA REVIEW: Alien on Stage (2020)
The late Satoshi Kon is without exaggeration one of the most talented and significant directors in the history of animation, and thanks to French filmmaker Pascal-Alex Vincent he is now the focus of a feature-length documentary about his life and … Continue reading FANTASIA REVIEW: Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist (2020)
In order to succeed, good documentaries need to tell interesting stories. Steelers: The World’s First Gay Rugby Club, a 2020 documentary directed by journalist Eammon Ashton-Atkinson, certainly lands on something of note: London’s Kings Cross Steelers, and their quest to … Continue reading REVIEW: Steelers (2020)
Or, to give its full translated title: Kazuo Oga: Ghibli’s Image Artisan: The Art Who Made Totoro’s Forest. This is a 75-minute documentary focused on Kazuo Oga, who has worked since the mid-1980s as an art director and background painter for … Continue reading REVIEW: Kazuo Oga: Ghibli’s Image Artisan (2007)
A series of commuters turn up at the lost property office of a Montreal train station. One is looking for a missing binder, another for a beloved hat left in a train carriage. From this modest beginning we follow the … Continue reading REVIEW: Prayer for a Lost Mitten (2020)
In April 1746 Scotland’s Jacobite army – exhausted, starving, and on the run – was intercepted by the British royal army on a sodden field near Inverness known as Culloden. Over the subsequent hour, the rebel forces were savaged by … Continue reading REVIEW: Culloden (1964)
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