Close-Up Culture

Independent journalism on the things we love

Utterly Beguiled: The Tale Of Two Films

SOFIA Coppola’s latest film, The Beguiled, begins with a young girl (Amy) singing as she picks mushrooms in the woods. Although it may seem insignificant, her voice marks an important shift in perspective compared to Don Siegel’s 1971 version of the story. Siegel’s film, which was released just 44 days before Coppola was born, opens…
Lost In Headphones: Many A Movie Moment

HEADPHONES play a big role in my life. They give me the freedom to listen to music and podcasts in public without disturbing others. They allow me, at any time, to escape boredom, silence or unwanted interaction. Sometimes, more pressingly, they distract my mind from creeping feelings of insecurity and upset. In many ways, headphones…
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…
A Pointless War With No Winners – Spoils (Book Review)

ALTHOUGH the onset of the Iraqi war may be 14 years gone, it is never far from our minds. Only in the last few days has Sir John Chilcot raised his head above the parapet again to criticise (in his gentle way) Tony Blair for his willingness to back President Bush and blindly go to…
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…
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…
Glorious Gloria – A Killer of a Play (Theatre Review)

GLORIA. Glorious Gloria. There is no other way to describe this marvellous play from the hugely talented Branden Jacob-Jenkins that is showcasing at the Hampstead Theatre in North London. It runs until July 29. I urge you to go and see it. You will not be disappointed. Jacob-Jenkins is in a rich vein of London…
Sibling Rivalry as the Aussie Bacon Sizzles – Food (Theatre Review)

FOOD is one of two appetising plays currently playing at the ambitious Finborough Theatre in London’s Chelsea (the other is Mr Gillie). As its title implies, the backdrop to the play is food, (not quite) glorious food – cooked in a takeaway situated along an Australian highway, beside a river and north of a big…
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…
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.…