A subjective lens is often the best way to skewer harsh realities. In Promising Young Woman, our view of the world is purposefully distorted by aesthetic. This is an overtly stylised, carefully framed and candy coloured treat - but one that hides real danger. This colourful, or false, view of the world plays multiple roles … Continue reading Promising Young Woman (Review)
Tag: opinion
Cuatro Paredes (Review)
For a few minutes, you get some nicely framed, crisp images of a pretty house. The wide angle gives you a decent view and the scene is set in promising fashion. We know the film is going to be about absence, so the wide frame leaves room for absence - and for stillness. Yet still, … Continue reading Cuatro Paredes (Review)
Have You Seen… Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974)?
To even describe Céline and Julie Go Boating is antithetical to the experience. It is a purposefully rambling and anti-narrative piece more in love with spontaneity and energy than it is with anything else. It is a film about breaking the rules, about repetitions and deviations, and ultimately about the nature of cinema itself. Fundamentally, … Continue reading Have You Seen… Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974)?
Have You Seen… The Day He Arrives (2011)?
Welcome to ‘Have You Seen….’ a regular column exploring an interesting film that is worthy of greater attention – for good or for ill. The focus is on the underseen, the undersung or the underrated – or just those films you just need to write about. The focus is analysis more than evaluation so, expect … Continue reading Have You Seen… The Day He Arrives (2011)?
Godzilla vs. Kong (Review)
Before 2014’s Godzilla, the Americans had a bad track record when translating the King of the Monsters for Western audiences. This process began with abysmal re-edits of the first three Godzilla movies: butchering the original products, diluting their impact and adding terrible extra footage (interestingly, this included a re-cut of the original King Kong vs. … Continue reading Godzilla vs. Kong (Review)
Have you seen… The Green Fog (2017)?
Welcome to ‘Have You Seen….’ a regular column exploring an interesting film that is worthy of greater attention – for good or for ill. The focus is on the underseen, the undersung or the underrated – or just those films you just need to write about. The focus is analysis more than evaluation so, expect … Continue reading Have you seen… The Green Fog (2017)?
Blackberrying (Review)
This enthralling mix of raw realism and uncanny surrealism makes for an evocative portrait of loss. By carefully balancing a sense of fantasy and reality, the filmmakers effortlessly convey the complex idea that grief can often feel unreal. Actual loss is so hard to deal with that our emotive recollections of those who have left … Continue reading Blackberrying (Review)
Have You Seen… The Ascent (1977)?
Welcome to ‘Have You Seen….’ a regular column exploring an interesting film that is worthy of greater attention – for good or for ill. The focus is on the underseen, the undersung or the underrated – or just those films you just need to write about. The focus is analysis more than evaluation so, expect … Continue reading Have You Seen… The Ascent (1977)?
The White Tiger (Review)
You can sense the award winning novel at the heart of this adaptation. There are moments of fascinating subtext and well judged relationships - novelistic moments. Unfortunately, this film is overwhelmed by surface, and by aesthetic, turning an interesting exploration of the pernicious impacts of the Indian caste-system (and ingrained inequality) into something flashy but … Continue reading The White Tiger (Review)
Malcolm and Marie (Review)
It feels like too much has been written about Malcolm and Marie already, mostly because of how utterly inessential and forgettable the film is. When taken as proof that you can make a film during Covid-19 - that is thankfully not about Covid - it is, well, just that. It is also proof on the … Continue reading Malcolm and Marie (Review)
Assorted Opinions 