If books, film and art were not dangerous, they wouldn’t need to be burned, banned or derided, but it is possible that the destruction of powerful art isn’t as prevalent as necessary, because there is no doubt it is one of the signposts that informs our choice of reading material. In the 1933 riots in […]
Category Archives: Film Reviews
December
01
Something In the Air – Olivier Assayas remembers what was never grasped. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
December
01
Gravity – Alfonso Cuarón retells Kubric and Tarkovsky in a feminist reading. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Ryan, you’re going to have to let go. I want to hear you say you’re going to make it. At the risk of being unpopular (and who cares about being popular right?) I’m going to perform a completely feminist reading of Gravity, because it does justice to the film maker, so if the ‘F’ word […]
November
29
Closed Circuit – John Crowley and the film that should have been better. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Off to a great start, Closed Circuit opens with several squares of footage as shot through twelve CCTV cameras until a bomb goes off and we realise we’ve been watching the footage just prior to a terrorist attack. During the opening credits we see a Turkish man, Farroukh Erdogan (Denis Moschitto) taken into custody and the […]
November
27
The Counselor – Cormac McCarthy and Ridley Scott bring writing to front and centre. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
One can usually assume the swelling vortex of Oscar contenders brings with it more quality films this time of year than any other, and there are some excellent films out at the moment, but the best I’ve seen do not have any hope of competing for Oscar glory. It is also fair to say some […]
November
26
Sister – Ursula Meier and the tragic world of children forced to be adults. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
The opening scene of Sister shows us an as yet unnamed Simon (Kacey Mottet Klien) in a toilet cubicle examining items he has stolen from the wealthy people around him for their re-sale value. His face is covered by a black ski mask, and he adds a helmet and goggles to the outfit in order […]
November
19
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – Francis Lawrence brings us an even better round two. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
There is an interesting and surprising theme in Catching Fire, the second of the phenomenally successful The Hunger Games trilogy ( inevitably to come out as four films) that sees love as the central motivator for young sixteen year old girls being posited against the falseness of love as an instrument of media manipulation. It […]
November
18
Filth – Jon S. Baird and the joy of (finally) another successful Welsh adaptation. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
“I think there’s something seriously wrong with me.” With the end of the Thatcher era the decade of the 1990’s produced films books and music that came to typify a writhing underbelly of a Britain that belied the facade the Tory’s wanted to plaster over the top of societal cracks. Thatcher wanted The Empire to […]
November
15
Adoration (The Mothers or Adore) – Anne Fontaine re-imagines taboo based desire after Nabokov. (Film review)
posted by lisathatcher
Adoration opens with a pair of twelve-year-old girls teasing and chasing each other through a lush forest. They burst onto a large pristine empty beach, disrobe, and swim out to a small floating dock where they have secreted away sample bottles of spirits for their own illicit amusement. The footage immediately references the opening scene […]
November
01
The Butler – Lee Daniels and strength of character. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
A fine scene in The Butler, defined by power and message (in a film that tries to deliver both in every frame) occurs when Cecil Gains (Forrest Whitaker) and his wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) attend a gala dinner at The White House as guests, invited by Nancy Regan (a weird-looking Jane Fonda). Cecil has been […]
October
08
Metallica Through the Never – Nimród Antal and Metallica burst into 3D. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
There’s not much point decrying thrash metal for the “showmanship” the hyper-machismo or the overtly empty gestures it is famous for, as the fans can see this just as well as the critics can, and metal has always carved its niche from the disdain of the “non-metal-community.” The metal concerts I’ve attended became acts of […]
Lisa Thatcher 