Reviewed by Lee Hill After Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield is the other mythic blonde bombshell that haunts Hollywood’s past and present. Her fame mainly rests on her comedic roles in two Frank Tashlin films, The Girl Can’t Help It (1956), arguably the first truly visionary rock n’ roll movie, and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter (1957). Typecast as a well-endowed bimbo, Mansfield tried to do more serious work, but earned…
Read MoreFilm Review: Entebbe
Reviewed by Lee Hill A glance at the Wikipedia entry for Operation Entebbe, the 4 July 1976 raid by Israeli commandos into Uganda to rescue 106 passengers of a hijacked Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris, reveals a depressing number of near forgotten films, made-for-TV movies, documentaries and other fictions inspired-by. The historical record somehow remains unsullied by these attempts at a greater truth (read: mega-box office success…
Read MoreFilm Review: New Town Utopia
Reviewed by Lee Hill Christopher Ian Smith’s lyrical documentary looks at Basildon, one of 10 new towns approved and developed to provide innovative as well as affordable housing solutions after the Second World War. In September 1948 MP Lewis Silkin. Minister of Town and Country Planning in Prime Minister Clement Attlee’s government said: “Basildon will become a City which people from all over the world will want to visit. It…
Read MoreFilm Review: ANON
Reviewed by Zoe Margolis Shot in a monochromatic, desaturated style, ANON offers a dulled vision of a near-future where no one has any secrets, or privacy. Unlike now, where people voluntarily upload personal information to social media platforms (or involuntarily, as is the case with Cambridge Analytica’s exploitation of Facebook content), citizens of this society appear to have no choice as to how their data is accessed. Instead of mobile…
Read MoreLFF 2017: Redoubtable
One of the unofficial laws surrounding biopics is the more complex and rich the subject, the more reductive and superficial the treatment of the life. Redoubtable is ostensibly about a great cinema revolutionary, Jean-Luc Godard, but his life and art are alas interpreted by Michel Hazanavicius, a director who wears his slim talent for pastiche heavily. Hazanavicius is best known for The Artist, one of the least deserving Best Picture…
Read MoreFilm Review: Beast
Reviewed by Lee Hill Francois Truffaut will never be entirely forgiven by some of the country’s film buffs for saying that British cinema was a contradiction in terms. For every bold visionary like Michael Powell, Nicolas Roeg, Derek Jarman or Lynne Ramsay, there are countless directors whose plodding efficiency and middle brow choice of subject can make one long for the personal signature of a Richard Donner (yes, he did…
Read MoreFilm Review: The Ciambra
Reviewed by Lee Hill Against a timeless backdrop of mountain and foothills, a simply dressed yet elegant looking young man with a mustache tends to a horse and his encampment. This image will be a rare moment of calm and reflection before the chaotic narrative that follows. Where the opening shot of The Ciambra suggests timeless, romantic tradition, the remainder of the film will immerse us in a deracinated sub-culture…
Read MoreReview: Every Day
Reviewed by Linda Marric Michael Sucsy’s film about a teenage girl who falls in love with someone who transforms into someone else every day, is a charming, beautifully crafted and hugely engaging millennial love story with a twist. Based on David Levithan’s novel of the same name and from a screenplay by Jesse Andrews, Every Day offers a heart-warming tale of love, acceptance and teenage angst without ever falling into…
Read MoreTrailer: Hereditary
Check out the new trailer for the upcoming Horror sensation Hereditary. The film is release on June 15th and stars Toni Collette as a mother whose family begins to unravel when cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry are revealed. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited as it slowly destroys everything around them. Making his…
Read MoreFilm Review: Truth or Dare
Reviewed by Lee Hill Truth or Dare is such a bland, albeit efficient horror genre retread that its only conceivable raison d’etre is to keep risk averse mid-level studio executives employed. Entering a market that has been rejuvenated by the likes of Get Out, It Follows and A Quiet Place, this film deserves to get beaten to death at the box office and exiled to a remote corner of streaming…
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