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Chest-Pounding Action – War For The Planet Of The Apes (Film Review)
SIZE doesn’t matter – at least when cinema’s most beloved apes are involved. Just a few months ago, the new King Kong franchise got off to a loud and clumsy (but mostly loud) start. With Skull Island’s brittle approach to storytelling, any hope of emotional investment in Kong’s big-screen future is already teetering dangerously atop…
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Searing East End Cinema – Butterfly Kisses and Insyriated (Film Review)
Butterfly Kisses – THE East End Film Festival has just ended (July 2). And what a festival it has been. Five weekends of taking film out into the community, celebrating East London’s rich cultural mix, showcasing new directors and running an interesting mix of short films and documentaries of the moment (post Brexit referendum). The…
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Risk Producer Brenda Coughlin talks Assange, Censorship and Criticism
WE live in tense, volatile times. Trump, Brexit, Venezuela, artificial intelligence, North Korea, internet privacy, ISIS. Need I say more? For many of us, the cinema can provide a space to escape to, at least momentarily. Currently, the riotous fun of Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver gives us this (go and watch it, please). Conversely, cinema can…
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The American Dream in the Dark – Nightcrawler (Film Review)
Check out my review of brilliant Australian horror Hounds Of Love. Out in cinemas on July 28 THE American dream does not sleep, nor does it have a moral code. Lurking in the sinister shadows of a Los Angeles night is Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), an opportunist on the hunt for success – at any…
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Hair-Raising Australian Horror – Hounds of Love (Film Review)
HOT on the trail of Jordan Peele (Get Out) and Julia Ducournau (Raw), Ben Young is the latest talent to cut his directorial teeth in fine fashion with an inventive and hair-raising horror film. His debut feature, Hounds of Love, is set to the backdrop of a sweaty (not snowy) Christmas in 1987 Perth, Australia.…
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Wrestling With Reality – The Wrestler (2008)
‘The real world is faker than professional wrestling.’ These are the playful words of Mick Foley, or, as you may know him better, Mankind. A mask-wearing, sock-wielding masochist who was once infamously thrown off a 16-foot cell by The Undertaker. Yes, it is time to talk about the zany world of wrestling, but not as…
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James recommends: Chronicle (2012)
HOW do three high schoolers react when they are gifted the heady responsibility of superhero powers? That is the question director Josh Trank and writer Max Landis concisely pose in this engaging and bold movie. Andrew (Dane DeHaan) is a greasy haired, weary eyed introvert chronicling his life through a camera (yes, this is another…
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Grief and Isolation in Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester By The Sea
Spoiler warning. Our In-Focus series takes a look at Manchester By The Sea. OVER the past year American cinema has given us some beautifully tender and moving moments. The kiss in Moonlight, the planetarium dance in La La Land and the closing revelation in Arrival. But none more heart-rending than the ‘stroller scene’ in Kenneth…
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MTV, GTA and Britney: Nightmares of Popular Culture in Spring Breakers (2012)
DO you remember a time when MTV was the edgiest – if not the coolest – channel on television? Well those days are long gone now. Turn on MTV and you will likely be watching re-runs of Catfish or some show about teenage pregnancy. No longer at the cutting-edge of youth culture, the channel seems…
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The Shepherd (Film Review)
In our world dominated by comfort and convenience, a captivating Western, set in the modern day, seems hard to imagine. But last year’s Hell or High Water, set in the wastelands of Texas, showed there is still a place for such machismo-driven narratives. Now, up-and-coming filmmaker, Jonathan Cenzual Burley, takes us to the patchy dead…
