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)
More than 30 years in the making, Phil Tippett’s Mad God is a one-of-a-kind animated epic and a masterpiece of stop-motion. While niche in appeal, for audiences in that niche it will likely be one of the best films of their year. … Continue reading FANTASIA REVIEW: Mad God (2021)
Stunt casting has likely boosted Timothy Woodward Jr’s The Call to a profile beyond its own merits, but it remains a watchable and broadly enjoyable independent horror film. Measured expectations are a must. A group of friends have engaged in … Continue reading REVIEW: The Call (2020)
There is a long, rich history of musicians and pop stars expanding into feature films, and they range from simple concert recordings to elaborate arthouse dramas and from the sublimely powerful to the patently ridiculous. It’s arguably an under-appreciated form … Continue reading MIFF REVIEW: The Nowhere Inn (2020)
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)
I had to get around to The Devil Inside at some time. A low-budget found footage horror film, it was bankrolled by Paramount Pictures and supported with a wide release – so wide, in fact, that this US$1 million supernatural thriller grossed … Continue reading REVIEW: The Devil Inside (2012)
All hail the “dad movie”, providence for the white middle-aged man. Perennially dispatched from play-it-safe filmmakers and studios alike, the dad movie offers masculine, muscular entertainment to which beers may be drunk and during which afternoon naps may be taken … Continue reading REVIEW: The Ice Road (2021)
Throw The Truman Show, The Lego Movie, and The Matrix into a blender and you are likely to wind up with something like Free Guy – a new feature starring Ryan Reynolds and directed by Shawn Levy (A Night at the Museum). Guy (Reynolds) is … Continue reading REVIEW: Free Guy (2021)
It is a given that, as time moves on, history remembers the best films and – to a lesser extent – the worst, but that the average or ordinary ones are gradually sidelined and forgotten by audiences at large. John … Continue reading REVIEW: Medicine Man (1992)
From the 1950s through to the late 1970s, Walt Disney Pictures worked a hugely successful formula for generating a regular stream of family-oriented adventure and fantasy movies. Rather than follow the director-centric model of other American studios, it continued to … Continue reading REVIEW: The Island at the Top of the World (1974)
