Film
theartsdesk Q&A: Raoul Peck, director of the documentary 'Ernest Cole: Lost and Found'Tuesday, 11 March 2025
With his furious docu-essay I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck caused a stir in 2016. The film about African-American writer James Baldwin and the Civil Rights Movement not only put the Haitian-born Peck on the map as a director, but also made him one... Read more... |
Blu-ray: The Barnabáš Kos CaseTuesday, 11 March 2025
One of The Barnabáš Kos Case’s incidental pleasures lies in its relatively accurate depiction of orchestral life. Much of the action in Peter Solan’s 1964 Slovak black comedy (originally title: Prípad Barnabáš Kos) takes place in a rehearsal studio... Read more... |
Bonhoeffer review - flawed biopic of a saintly man of courageSaturday, 08 March 2025
The German theologian, pastor and anti-Nazi dissident Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a saintly, courageous figure, of major historical significance. Those are good reasons to ensure that his story gets told and becomes better known. At a time... Read more... |
Twiggy review - portrait of a supermodel who branched outSaturday, 08 March 2025
When Twiggy burst on to the scene in 1966, she was a beacon of hope for all flat-chested, short-haired, skinny girls. Of course we couldn’t look as fabulous as she did, with her enormous eyes and high forehead and long legs, but we could try.Before... Read more... |
On Falling review - human cogs in a merciless machineFriday, 07 March 2025
Alienation, isolation, and instability are the fruits of working as a “picker” in the chilling labour drama On Falling. The first feature written and directed by the Porto-born, Edinburgh-based filmmaker Laura Carreira presents post-industrial gig... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Oscar-winner Adrien Brody on 'The Brutalist'Friday, 07 March 2025
Adrien Brody is on a roll. Following his Golden Globe and BAFTA Best Actor wins for his performance as László Toth in Brady Corbet's The Brutalist, Brody picked up the equivalent Oscar last Sunday, celebrating it by giving the longest speech in... Read more... |
Blu-ray: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2Friday, 07 March 2025
Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) was uniquely disturbing, with its monster Leatherface’s first primal eruption to hang a victim on a meat-hook rivalling Psycho’s murders for shock and fright. It was only as the bludgeoning effect... Read more... |
Oscars 2025: long day's journey into 'Anora'Monday, 03 March 2025
Amid these troubling times, can we not all live in the world of the 2025 Oscars' runaway success story, an ever-smiling Sean Baker? That thought increasingly crossed my mind as the 97th Academy Awards crawled towards its close, a promise early on... Read more... |
The Last Showgirl review - Pamela Anderson stars as a middle-aged Vegas dancerFriday, 28 February 2025
Shelly (Pamela Anderson) is a dancer. She’s been with Le Razzle Dazzle, an outdated Las Vegas show that’s full of “breasts, rhinestones and joy”, in her words, for 30 years. And now it’s closing. Where can she go, at the age of 57?The third feature... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Drugstore CowboyTuesday, 25 February 2025
Rehab people will tell you there are three stages to drug abuse: fun; fun with problems; problems. There’s also a fourth phase, where there aren't any problems, because you’re dead.Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy maps out the territory between... Read more... |
The Monkey review - a grisly wind-upSaturday, 22 February 2025
Longlegs’ trapdoor ending snapped tight on its clammy Lynchian mood, reconfiguring its Silence of the Lambs serial-killer yarn into a more slyly awful tale. Osgood Perkins’ hit fourth horror film seemed sure to elevate his career, but follow-up The... Read more... |
I'm Still Here review - powerful tale of repression and resistanceFriday, 21 February 2025
Just like Britain’s ‘stiff upper lip’, that indominable spirit in the face of adversity, Brazil has a dominant personality trait – open-hearted, ebullient – that tends to obscure the reality of its many social, economic and political travails. ... Read more... |
