Tag: mystery
Blink Twice
Friday, August 23rd, 2024 Film Reviews,Not long ago, Channing Tatum had all but disappeared from our screens. After a blazing start to his career, from 2017-21 he seems to have done only voiceovers. You may remember him as the voice of Superman in that cinema classic, The Lego Movie 2! Suddenly Tatum is everywhere – starring with Scarlett Johansson in […]
Sleeping Dogs
Saturday, August 10th, 2024 Film Reviews,If the word ‘thriller’ conjures up thoughts of car chases, shootouts, martial arts contests and desperate last minute escapes, you might not want to bother with Sleeping Dogs. The most thrilling moments in this film are when a tiny snippet of recovered memory comes flashing through the lead character’s mind. It might not sound especially […]
The Sitting Duck
Friday, June 21st, 2024 Film Reviews,As we’ve recently seen with Iranian director, Mohammad Rasoulof having to flee his native land to avoid imprisonment and a flogging, the cinema still has the capacity to send tremors down the corridors of power. Although films on social justice issues are not much appreciated in authoritarian states, those same regimes recognise the immense propaganda […]
Monster & Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Friday, May 10th, 2024 Film Reviews,Some directors are known for their car chases, Hirokaru Kore’eda is celebrated for his portrayals of families – big, small, sometimes barely recognisable as such. In Monster, the family consists of only a single mother, Saori Mugino (Sakura Ando), and her 11-year-old son, Minato (Soya Kurokawa), living in a provincial Japanese city. As they sit […]
Subtraction
Friday, March 1st, 2024 Film Reviews,When I have to choose between two new releases the crucial consideration is often which movie has the best chance of reaching a wide audience. I thought initially that Ethan Coen’s Drive Away Dolls would be a bigger crowd pleaser than Mani Haghighi’s Subtraction, but after watching both features, I’m not so sure. At their […]
Saltburn
Saturday, November 18th, 2023 Film Reviews,Downton Abbey it ain’t. The grand estate of Saltburn may be even larger than the Crawleys’ ancestral home, but the tone is distinctly lower. In her second outing as a director, Emerald Fennell takes aim at a subject that has been shot full of holes on many occasions: the English upper classes. If Fennell’s previous […]
The Origin of Evil
Friday, November 3rd, 2023 Film Reviews,Laure Calamy has amazing screen presence. She may not have the elegance of Catherine Deneuve or Fanny Ardant in their heydays, but she has charmed the French box office so effectively that, at the age of 48, she seems to be in every second movie. Naturally suited to comic roles, Calamy can turn on the […]
Limbo
Friday, May 26th, 2023 Film Reviews,For the Catholic Church, Limbo was literally the outskirts of Hell, inhabited by those good people who died before Christ was born, and by infants without experience of baptism or sin. In common parlance, the word has come to mean a state of indecision, of forced inaction with no clear path in sight. For filmmaker […]
Decision to Leave
Friday, October 21st, 2022 Film Reviews,Among Korean directors, Bong Joon-ho achieved worldwide fame when Parasitewon the Oscar for best Picture in 2019, but one should not ignore the claims of his contemporary, Park Chan-wook. At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Park won the award for Best Director, while his new film, Decision to Leave, has been selected as South Korea’s […]
The Night of the 12th
Friday, October 14th, 2022 Film Reviews,Never has a whodunnit been less dependent on suspense than Dominik Moll’s The Night of the 12th. At the very beginning we are told the French Criminal Investigation Department opens 800 murder investigations every year. “Some are never resolved,” we read. “This film is about one of these.” Even though we know this is the […]