Reviewed by Lee Hill Vladimir Putin may be looking forward to another six years of running the Russian Federation, but his country’s best filmmakers will not give him an easy ride. Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan and Loveless have been recent state-of-the-nation molotovs lobbed at Mother Russia. Sergei Lotznitsa’s A Gentle Creature is a further reminder that, despite the monolithic philistinism that Putin embodies and revels in, dissident filmmaking is not just…
Read MoreFilm Review: The Bachelors
Reviewed by Luke Channell “I can’t stay here anymore” declares a mournful Bill (J. K. Simmons) to his teenage son Wes (Josh Wiggins) at the very beginning of Kurt Voelker’s indie dramedy The Bachelors. Attempting to move on from the sudden death of Bill’s wife, the pair relocate from their family home in San Francisco to a small rental property in Los Angeles. Despite this cookie-cutter premise – plus a…
Read MoreComing Soon: Tony Richardson and Woodfall Films
Tony Richardson and Woodfall Films: A Revolution in British Film A month-long season at the BFI Southbank, April 2018 Reviewed by Lee Hill From 1959 to 1963, director Tony Richardson became synonymous with “kitchen sink realism”. That catchphrase simultaneously celebrated and dismissed a new wave in British film. The wave first came to attention when Richardson and Karel Reisz screened their documentary short, Mamma Don’t Allow, as part of the…
Read MoreFilm Review: Ready Player One
Reviewed by Zack Evans Cyberpunk has been with us for quite some time, but it has never quite gone mainstream. Whilst Philip K Dick has been embedded in sci-fi film culture for decades, surprisingly few of the other big names (Sterling, Stephenson, Noon…) have made it directly into the medium, except Gibson’s Johnny Mnemonic, and his Pattern Recognition is stuck in Dev Hell. Instead, cyberpunk has diffused through geek culture in general,…
Read MoreInterview with Gholam Director Mitra Tabrizian
Interview with Mitra Tabrizian, co-writer and director of Gholam by author and Screenwords critic Lee Hill Gholam is the haunting feature film debut of Mitra Tabrizian. In collaboration with her co-writer, Cyrus Massoudi, Tabrizian has created a subtle character study of an Iranian exile in London trying to make a living as a mini-cab driver and in his free time, struggling to move on from a dark and complicated past as…
Read MoreFilm Review: A Wrinkle In Time
Reviewed by Zack Evans Whether or not the book is a timeless classic, the basic premise of A Wrinkle In Time is certainly the stuff of archetype. Following the disappearance of her father four years ago, Meg Murray, played by the excellent Storm Reid, grows into a Troubled Teenager – she is bullied at school and has a difficult relationship with her mother. There’s a refreshing additional dynamic between Meg…
Read MoreFilm Review: The Islands and the Whales
Reviewed by Rachael Kaines A thoughtful, measured, and unbiased look at a myriad of issues facing modern man through the lens of an isolated archipelago with an unusual and controversial culture. The Islands and the Whales manages the impressive feat of illuminating a society that has, until now, largely escaped the many effects of globalisation, but they are on the brink of change. Pollution, overfishing, global warming, animal rights, and…
Read MoreWonder Wheel: A Meta Review
Reviewed by Lee Hill If you want a review of Wonder Wheel, Woody Allen’s 48th feature film as writer and director, the following will prove disappointing or perhaps, even upsetting. Go ahead cry, fume, tsk tsk or rant – tweet if I care. This is a meta-review of Wonder Wheel (not to be confused with Woody Allen Summer Project 2017 aka A Rainy Day in New York, which may or…
Read MoreFilm Review: The Third Murder
Reviewed by Rachael Kaines The Third Murder is a frustrating and intriguing drama that asks many more questions than it answers. The truth is unknowable in this atmospheric and atypical offering from Japanese auteur Hirokazu Koreeda. The story follows Tomoaki Shigemori (Masaharu Fukuyama), a lawyer who is defending a client, Misumi (Kōji Yakusho), in a murder trial. Misumi was previously convicted for two murders, but sentenced to years rather than…
Read MoreBFI FLARE: Five Must See Films
With the 32nd Edition of the BFI LGBTQ Film Festival opening on the 21st March, what better time than to take a look at some of the most eagerly awaited films in this year’s programme, and shine a light on the films we are most looking forward to catch.
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