Close-Up Culture

Independent journalism on the things we love

Director Francis Lee talks God’s Own Country

FRANCIS Lee’s debut feature, God’s Own Country, is a personal endeavour. Filmed on the West Yorkshire hills he grew up on, Lee’s film tells an unlikely and heartfelt love story between two young men. Johnny (Josh O’Connor), a hard-edged and blunt-tongued young man, is struggling to keep up with the intensive workload on his ailing…
An Important Uphill Climb – Icarus (Film Review)

IN 2012, one of the world’s most decorated and heroic sportsmen was exposed as a cheat and a liar. The revelations of Lance Armstrong’s doping rocked not only cycling, but the very foundations of sport. Following this, films – like Stephen Frears’ The Program and Alex Gibney’s The Armstrong Lie – looked to shine a…
Scene of the Day – Interstellar Goodbye

EMER Reynolds’ documentary The Farthest – out in cinemas now – tells the remarkable story of NASA’s Voyager Interstellar Mission. All of this talk of interstellar space got me thinking about Christopher Nolan’s 2014 film, Interstellar. It is an emotional and labyrinthine work that, in typical Nolan fashion, builds to a mind-bending ending. Yet above…
Peeping Grace – Window (Theatre Review)

VOYEURISM is a feature of modern society. It has been fuelled by the growth of social media, 24 hour news, our appetite for celebrity gossip and the nation’s voracious consumption of easily available soft pornography. But for some voyeurism is a train journey from fun to obsession with unfortunate consequences, a theme expertly captured by…
(Inter)Stellar Documentary – The Farthest

HOW would you fit the entirety of human civilization onto one vinyl record? That was one of many lofty tasks facing NASA ahead of their Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM) in 1977. Taking advantage of a rare arrangement of the outer planets, VIM saw twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 set off on a unique…
Unlocked (DVD Review)

IT has been 18 years since Michael Apted directed the world’s most famous spy, James Bond, in The Word Is Not Enough. Unlocked – out on DVD and Blu-ray on August 28 – sees Apted return to the spy genre with a film packed full of enough twists and turns to make M Night Shyamalan…
Q&A with Una Director Benedict Andrews + Film Review

IT has been a while since a film – outside of the horror genre – made me wriggle uncomfortably in my seat. But Una, an adaptation of well-travelled – and controversial – play Blackbird made me uneasy throughout. But the uncomfortable watch was one worth enduring because the film deals head-on with the difficult and…
Stunning Japanese Animation in IMAX – Your Name (Film Review)

FOLLOWING a hugely-successful and praise-filled first-run, Japanese film Your Name returns to UK cinemas in IMAX this week (starting August 23). Mitsuha is a schoolgirl living in rural Japan. During a vivid dream, she finds herself in the body of a teenage boy named Taki who lives in the centre of Tokyo. After some confusion…
A Delicious Tale of Cannibalism – Raw (Film Review)

UNIVERSITY is considered a place where young people begin to ‘find themselves’. Just last week, a fresh batch of A-Level students received their exams results and will now be preparing for this next identity-shaping stage of their lives. None of those students – at least I hope – will go into higher education and discover…
Sharks, Bond and Cousteau: Diving Deep on Film

THE Father of Diving’, Jacques Cousteau, is the subject of Jerome Salle’s biopic The Odyssey – out in cinemas now. It is a film well worth watching if only to remind us that Cousteau was the Neil Armstrong of the oceans who cared more for self-publicity than protecting the world’s oceans from man’s destructive influence…