Film Reviews
Suspiria review - kindly, slow-motion grand guignolThursday, 15 November 2018
The first Suspiria was a sensation, and spectacularly, monomaniacally new. Read more... |
Widows review - feminist crime paysMonday, 12 November 2018
Steve McQueen’s progress from video artist to Oscar-winning director has been deceptively smooth. Read more... |
Overlord review - nightmares in NormandySaturday, 10 November 2018
The trailer for Overlord promises havoc, horror, evil, madness, terror and rage, and to be fair it delivers on most of those. Read more... |
Wildlife review - Paul Dano's tense directorial debutSaturday, 10 November 2018
A revelatory moment comes hallway through Wildlife when frustrated American housewife Jeanette Brinson (Carey Mulligan) is observed standing alone in her family’s backyard by her 14-year-old son Joe (Ed Oxenbould), the film’s anxious, steadfast protagonist. Read more... |
Peterloo review - Mike Leigh's angry historical dramaThursday, 01 November 2018
Considering how the UK prides itself on having created the "Mother of Parliaments" and its citizens having once chopped off a king's head for thwarting its will, remarkably little is taught in our schools about one of the seminal events on the way to fully democratising this country: the Peterloo Massacre. Read more... |
The Yukon Assignment review - two men in a boat test father-son bondWednesday, 31 October 2018
The Yukon Assignment tracks a 500-mile canoe journey along a remote river in Canada taken by a British adventurer and his father. Read more... |
Michael Caine: Blowing the Bloody Doors Off review - an actor's handbook, annotated by experienceSunday, 28 October 2018
What a charmer! An irresistible combination of diffidence and confidence, Michael Caine is so much more than Alfie, and this surprising book, his second after a delightful autobiography, is multi-layered, filled with tips for acting, on stage and screen. Read more... |
Bohemian Rhapsody review – all surface, no soulFriday, 26 October 2018
If a Queen biopic called for drama, scandal and outrage, then Bohemian Rhapsody spent its fill in production. Read more... |
Possum review - mind-infecting homage to 1970s horrorThursday, 25 October 2018
Matthew Holness clearly knows a thing or two about low-budget British horror from the early 1970s. In TV comedy Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace he was as merciless as he was affectionate in ripping the genre apart. His debut feature as writer-director is an odd, woozy... Read more... |
The Hate U Give review - American teen drama takes on Black Lives MatterWednesday, 24 October 2018
Starr Carter is 16 years old and her life straddles two very different worlds, the posh prep school she goes to with its privileged white students and the troubled black neighbourhood she lives in with her family. Read more... |
Donkeyote review - a quiet revelationTuesday, 23 October 2018
It’s an undeniably quirky set-up: an elderly Spanish farmer who takes it upon himself to travel to America and walk – alone – the epic, 2,200-mile Trail of Tears, following the westward route taken by the Cherokee fleeing white settlers. Alone, that is, apart from his trusty sheepdog Zafrana and Andalusian donkey Gorrión. It’s such a bizarre idea, in fact, that a travel agent whose help... Read more... |
LFF 2018: Roma review – Alfonso Cuarón’s triumphant return to MexicoSaturday, 20 October 2018
It’s not for nothing that Alfonso Cuarón’s mercurial CV includes Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, because this director really knows something about alchemy. Read more... |
LFF 2018: The Favourite review - Queen Anne's bizarre love triangleSaturday, 20 October 2018
Olivia Colman will in due course be appearing as Elizabeth II in The Crown, surely a role of a very different hue to her portrayal of Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite (shown at LFF).... Read more... |
Dogman review - Matteo Garrone takes on the mafia againFriday, 19 October 2018
There aren’t many movies that cater to audiences with a passion for canine grooming, the mafia and dismal seaside resorts but Dogman more than satisfies all those cravings. Ten years after Matteo Garrone won Cannes with the searingly brutal Gomorrah, the director returns with another drawn-from-life tale of everyday Italian mobsters. The titular hero is Marcello (Marcello Fonte), a... Read more... |
LFF 2018: In Fabric review – Peter Strickland’s horror comedy is dressed to killFriday, 19 October 2018
While much has been said of Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Dario Argento’s cult horror Suspiria, it’s the latest stylishly bizarre confection by British writer-director Peter Strickland – about a demonic dress, no less – that comes much closer to the strange spirit of Italian horror. Read more... |
Science Fair review - big on ambition, light on rigourFriday, 19 October 2018
More than 1,700 teenage finalists representing 78 countries take part in the annual International Science and Engineering Fair, virtually the Oscars for exceptional young biologists, physicists, chemists, mathematicians, computer scientists, doctors and more. If they’re selected for ISEF, these young brainboxes get to show the fair’s forbidding judges what contributions they’re planning to make to our futures –... Read more... |
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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
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