film festivals
LFF 2019: Marriage Story review – not a dry eye in the houseWednesday, 09 October 2019
Marriage Story, shown at the London Film Festival, feels like an instant classic, that intimate, tangible, resonant kind of classic that touches a chord with almost anyone. It’s not just a film about a divorce, but that added nightmare of a divorce... Read more... |
Joker review – a phenomenal Joaquin Phoenix on the mean streets of GothamThursday, 03 October 2019
When Joker won the Golden Lion in Venice in September, it was an unprecedented achievement, the first time a comic book-related film had won such a prestigious prize. But then, isn’t your typical comic book film. Starring a phenomenal... Read more... |
San Sebastian Film Festival: Latin films thriveMonday, 30 September 2019
Ever since Latin American cinema re-emerged in the 1990s from years in the shadow of dictatorships, films have been distinguished by a number of trends, including dramas about the dictatorship years and the social and psychological consequences;... Read more... |
San Sebastian Film Festival: Proxima review – Eva Green has The Right StuffTuesday, 24 September 2019
Proxima is a very special, very beautiful space movie, one of those that are more concerned with the bread-and-butter reality of getting people into space – practically, emotionally, psychologically – than with the starry shenanigans themselves... Read more... |
10th Odessa International Film Festival review - exquisite gay love stories and visionary new musicSaturday, 27 July 2019
Odessa, the so-called "pearl of the Black Sea", is a Ukrainian city full of lovely 19th-century Italianate architecture and sandy beaches, with a reputation, even in Soviet times, for a certain bohemian sense of freedom. It has also, for the past... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: Ash Is Purest WhiteTuesday, 23 July 2019
Chinese director Jia Zhangke has made a masterful career from following the changes that his native land has undergone in the 21st century, catching the speed of its transition from old ideological order to the relentless dynamism of subsequent... Read more... |
Varda by Agnès review - a richly moving film farewellFriday, 19 July 2019
French director Agnès Varda looks back over a cinematic career of seven decades in this a richly moving film farewell, finished not long before her death at the end of March, aged 90. It’s structured around a series of masterclasses in which she... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: MiraiTuesday, 02 July 2019
Mirai made animation history when it was included in the Director's Fortnight at Cannes in 2018, the first Japanese anime feature to be so honoured. It went on to be nominated for an Oscar. Director Mamoro Hosoda, who worked at Studio Ghibli before... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: SauvageSaturday, 22 June 2019
Anyone who saw Félix Maritaud playing the angry activist Max in Robin Campillo’s Paris ACT UP drama 120 BPM will certainly remember him (main picture). He came to the film as a non-professional, from an arts student background, and builds on that... Read more... |
Cannes 2019: Matthias & Maxime review - a gently charming new dramaSaturday, 25 May 2019
It has been ten years since Canadian auteur Xavier Dolan first debuted I Killed My Mother at the Cannes Film Festival. A decade on he returns in competition with a title that shows an evolution of his filmmaking that leaves behind many of the... Read more... |
Cannes 2019: Week One - a genre-heavy openingSunday, 19 May 2019
Every year the Cannes Film Festival is a swirl of chaos, excitement, and controversy. Last year, the festival had a markedly different feel. Gone were the big starry names. Replacing them were less glitzy films that were given a chance to shine.... Read more... |
Cannes 2019: The Dead Don't Die review - festival opens with rich zombie satireWednesday, 15 May 2019
“The world is perfect. Appreciate the details” says a WU-PS driver played by RZA, in Jim Jarmusch’s gleefully meta zombie-comedy that has just opened the Cannes Film Festival. It’s good advice. Jarmusch’s latest work is a finely tuned, deadpan... Read more... |
