Film Reviews
Beatriz’s War
Saturday, July 19th, 2014 Film Reviews,Having finally managed to see Beatriz’s War, I almost wish I hadn’t. This first-ever feature from Timor-Leste is a rite of passage; a catharsis for the wrongs endured during the Indonesian occupation. One suspects it will be a long time before the East Timorese are producing comedies and musicals. There’s too much pain and trauma […]
Charlie’s Country
Saturday, July 19th, 2014 Film Reviews,In the international arena Charlie’s Country is enjoying success as an arthouse movie, but no film could be more brutally realistic in its depiction of contemporary Aboriginal life. Perhaps any story without car chases and explosions is now automatically consigned to the realm of art, but it’s obvious that Charlie’s Country could never be mistaken […]
The Volcano
Saturday, July 12th, 2014 Film Reviews,For the second review I’d hoped to be writing about Beatriz’s War, the first ever feature from Timor-Leste. Unfortunately, circumstances conspired to prevent me seeing the film last week, so I’m falling back on a new French farce, The Volcano. One always goes to see a comedy with a sense of anticipation. It should be […]
The Lunchbox
Saturday, July 12th, 2014 Film Reviews,India is by far the world’s largest producer of feature films, but very few of them make their way into our cinemas. For westerners it seems surreal when a Bollywood drama suddenly erupts into an elaborate song and dance routine that would leave Busby Berkeley gasping. For Indian audiences the opposite applies. Without the songs […]
Calvary
Saturday, July 5th, 2014 Film Reviews,Calvary arrives with a big rap, and a raging battle between fans and detractors. In England it has been hailed as possibly the greatest ever film from Ireland, but there are plenty of Irish cinema-goers angered by John Michael McDonagh’s savage parody of a broken, disfigured society. Either way, it’s compulsive viewing, thanks to a […]
JFF Encore
Saturday, July 5th, 2014 Film Reviews,With film festivals increasing in number every year, and existing festivals getting bigger, it’s easy to miss the stand-out items in any program. The Japan Foundation has found an innovative way of addressing this problem with the Japanese Film Festival Encore screenings. From 9-13 July, the Foundation will be running a “Japan Academy Awards Edition” […]
Yves Saint Laurent
Saturday, June 28th, 2014 Film Reviews,Behind every great man, as we learn in Jalil Lespert’s Yves Saint Laurent, there’s a great man. More than any designer of the 20th century, Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008) revolutionised the world of fashion, but his genius for haute couture may never have been fully realised without the business acumen of Pierre Bergé. This conventional, […]
Two Faces of January
Saturday, June 28th, 2014 Film Reviews,Some authors do not lend themselves to a cinematic adaptation, others write books that run through the reader’s mind like images on a screen. In the former category think of those tortuous psychologists of the Zeitgeist such as Proust, Mann and Musil. In the latter, close to the top of the list, stands Patricia Highsmith […]
Frank
Saturday, June 21st, 2014 Film Reviews,Frank is a movie that makes a fiction out of a difficult truth. The model for the lead character, who spends almost the entire movie walking around with a large papier-maché head lodged on his shoulders, was Frank Sidebottom, the creation of Chris Sievey (1955-2010), a wannabee rock star who found that wearing a different […]
The Rover
Saturday, June 21st, 2014 Film Reviews,After the success of his debut feature, Animal Kingdom (2010), David Michod should have been in a position to make any film he liked. One imagines promising scripts and stories piled high on his desk; offers and ideas arriving by post, phone and email. Or maybe not. The movie industry seems glamorous to outsiders but […]