Category Archives: Film Reviews

December 03

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul – Older Woman Younger Man Fassbinder style (Film Review)

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Since the dawn of time older chicks and younger dudes have been gettin’ it on, but it’s remained a societal taboo despite its ubiquity. There’s definitely something about it that offends us –  misogynistic mythology will be at the heart of the offence and there are probably countless decent books on the subject. However, film […]

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November 30

Skyfall – how to do Bond for over 50 years (film review)

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So what is it about James Bond? It’s difficult to ignore the stats. We’ve been in love with this misogynistic ‘blunt instrument’ for fifty years now. That beats any spotty teen wizard or teen vampire, any re-birthing of a Bourne, and any Batman, Superman, Spiderman style film and remake you can name. As if it’s […]

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November 20

Punch Drunk Love – Paul Thomas Anderson and the Rom-Com. (Film Review)

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Seeing as I was so impressed with The Master, I thought I’d check out all the other Paul Thomas Anderson (or PTA as I see he’s being called around the traps) films this week and be the last person to get on board with a fantastic contemporary director. I just watched Punch Drunk Love, the […]

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November 19

Dead Europe – Tony Kravitz tells us we are what we believe. (Film Review)

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I haven’t read the novel Dead Europe by Christos Tsiolkas, though I know at the time of its release there were quite a few people impressed with it. It has been a novel that can’t be adapted to the big screen, in the past, so now that I enjoyed the film, and would like to […]

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November 17

American Mary – The Soska Twins take on Bod.Mod. (film review)

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I’m not really a horror buff, but I’ll watch one when its good. A great horror film was Franju’s Eyes without a Face, the story of a surgeon gone mad in his attempts to restore his daughters disfigured face by stealing the faces of young women he murders. The surgeon gone mad theme has became a frequent and strong […]

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November 15

I served the King of England – Jiri Menzel’s take on Bohumil Hrabal just after the Prague Spring.

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I got the distinct feeling all the way through I served the King of England, that i was missing the “in” joke. It’s entirely likely of course – I’m not Czech, and I’ve never read the book. There is something deeply beautiful about Jan Dítĕ (Ivan Barnev) despite his rather appalling opportunism. Jiri Menzel made this […]

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November 14

Solaris – The film Tarkovsky didn’t like.

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I had a lot of help with this review by reading M. Dawsons wonderful review here, on Left Field Cinema. I watched Solaris a few weeks back for the first time – what an enormous pleasure it is to be able to watch films like those made by Andrei Tarkovsky. In an oh so clever move, […]

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November 13

Seven Psychopaths Review – Martin McDonagh goes cute n’ clever on the art of the screenplay.

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Seven Psychopaths is one of those really cute and really clever takes on the Hollywood screenplay.  I have to say up front that Martin McDonagh (who writes this as well as directs it) is giving Tarentino the elbow here in a film that is sort of homage sort of pay-out, sort of frustrated attempt to […]

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November 12

“The Master” review – Paul Thomas Anderson and the Death-Drive

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One of the best ways to avert a certain kind of controversy is by allowing another kind to take its place. In other words, when you are going to write a controversial book, film or piece of music, if you want to avoid the controversy, overlap it with another controversy that will divert critics and […]

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You Will Be My Son – Gilles Legrand films the pathological fear of death.

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You will be my son is a film about power and money and about a persons ultimate reach for power – the power over death. Cleverly using the father/son mythology of Oedipus and King Laius, this story examines what would have happened if King Laius didn’t bind his sons feet and leave him on a mountain to die, but […]

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