A promising exploitation flick based on a novel of the same name by Ryu Murakami (of Audition fame). It’s a decently nasty little film where a man (Christopher Abbott) decides to kill a sex worker, as per a meticulous plan, and then everything falls apart when he seemingly meets his match (Mia Wasikowska). What follows … Continue reading Piercing (Review)
Banana Skin (Short Film) (Analysis)
Disclaimer: this film was made by a close friend of mine. However, I've hated things that close friends have made before... Sorry, close friends... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIWmhns4v9M Banana Skin (a short film by photographer Jessie Leong) begins as an emotionally open look into identity and outsider status, using sharp photography of ultra modern Hong Kong cityscapes to … Continue reading Banana Skin (Short Film) (Analysis)
Burning (Review)
A genuine masterpiece. A beguiling and enigmatic picture that captures the intelligent ambiguity of late-period David Lynch. Though, where Lynch places metaphor as overt text - at the purposeful expense of verisimilitude - Burning has a slick veneer of reality and keeps its metaphors under the surface. The film is loosely based on a … Continue reading Burning (Review)
If Beale Street Could Talk (Review)
The poetic prose of Baldwin meets the impressionistic film-making of Barry Jenkins. A perfect marriage, really, as Jenkins’ approach to cinema has the same result as Baldwin’s approach to literature: revealing the beauty and profundity of everyday lives - especially those often forgotten or marginalised. The narrative is simple: the unjust imprisonment of a black … Continue reading If Beale Street Could Talk (Review)
Translucent Talk (Poem)
So much of conversation is shorthand, I thought to myself. Morsels of meaning mushed into hurried syllables, So much goes unexplained, unjustified and unfinishe
Art is Theft (Poem)
As a demonstration of the impossibility of originality in art, I have composed a piece entirely out of words used in other poems.
Sunset and Sunrise (Poem)
I couldn’t sleep because of all the minds, Billions living unconnected, A sudden realisation of an incomprehensible autonomy to which I exist in separation. So, I couldn’t sleep. My first thought was of a spider’s web: Lives spinning infinitely out of me, How human, We are only ever our centre. But our lives aren’t webs. … Continue reading Sunset and Sunrise (Poem)
NastyPALs – Episode 1: Zombie Flesh Eaters
Welcome to my new project! My friend (Adam Page) and I have signed some Faustian pact forcing us to record a podcast on every single video nasty (the 72 films banned in the UK under the obscene publications acts in 1983). Okay.. Faust jokes aside, why do this? Well... I'm really rather fascinated by them … Continue reading NastyPALs – Episode 1: Zombie Flesh Eaters
Suspiria (2018) Review
Suspiria (‘18) is a film about divisions: divided Berlin; divides in a dance group; divides between husband and wife; divides between very real political chaos outside and the creation of dance inside - the list goes on. It makes sense then that the film itself is so painfully divided - to the detriment of all … Continue reading Suspiria (2018) Review
Assorted Opinions 