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.
Read MoreFilm Review: The Square
Reviewed by Lee Hill In his 1946 essay, Politics and the English Language, George Orwell said: “…if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation, even among people who should and do know better.” Clear thinking, common sense, open debate and reason face new threats from the grip that marketing, branding, spin, “fake news” and other forms of intellectual cheerleading now…
Read MoreTrailer: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald
It’s finally here! Watch the brand new trailer of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. At the end of the first film, the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) was captured by MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America), with the help of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne). But, making good on his threat, Grindelwald escaped custody and has set about gathering followers, most unsuspecting of his true…
Read MoreFilm Review: Peter Rabbit
Reviewed by Rachael Kaines The new Peter Rabbit film has many tell-tale signs of an absolute stinker. Take some beloved British children’s stories, written by a woman who refused to sell out her characters to Disney, add a few much derided actors (one in particular who has made a leap across the pond that has stoked this disdain ever further), plus live action animation of animals telling jokes and singing…
Read MoreFilm Review: I Got Life!
Reviewed by Lee Hill I Got Life! is a deceptively slight film about the shifting moods and epiphanies one experiences in middle age. Having just turned 50, Aurore (Agnès Jaoui), a divorcee with two daughters living in La Rochelle, France, is hit not just by the onset of early menopause, but an omnipresent sense of how quickly youthful energy and potential can dissipate in mid-life. After walking out of a…
Read MoreFilm Review: Sweet Country
Reviewed by Lee Hill Sweet Country is a sympathetic, but unsentimental look at one of many turning points in the tortured relations between aboriginal peoples and white Australians. Set in 1929, Mick, an embittered and alcoholic war veteran (Thomas M. Wright) buys a station in a remote part of New South Wales. With little farming know-how, he enlists the aid of Fred Smith, his closest neighbour (Sam Neill), a born-again…
Read MoreFilm Review: Mary Magdalene
Reviewed by Rachael Kaines Mary Magdalene is a disarming portrait of someone who — the film argues — is an often misrepresented figure. This retelling is unashamedly feminist and augmented by astounding performances from both Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix. Mary Magdalene is not self-indulgent, self-righteous, or gratuitous, and all the better for it, resulting in a deeply profound and humanist revision to a well-worn history.
Read MoreFilm Review: You Were Never Really Here
Reviewed by Lee Hill It is nice to see Lynne Ramsay back from Director Jail. In 2013, Ramsay had a very public falling out with the producers of the western Jane Got A Gun, which was completed by Gavin O’Connor. As often happens when a director is replaced early in shooting the rumour mill went into overdrive (see also Joseph Strick being replaced by George Cukor on Justine, Ken Russell…
Read MoreFilm Review: Gholam
Reviewed by Lee Hill Gholam (Shahab Hosseini), the title character of this mordant portrait of an exile in extremis, is a shy, laconic Iranian military veteran in his 30s. He survives on the margins of the expatriate community in London by driving a mini-cab at night and odd jobs at a garage during the day. When not sleeping in a grim, mold encrusted studio flat, he spends his meagre free-time…
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