Film

"The famous French advertising slogan that says, `When you love life, you go to the movies,' it’s false! It’s exactly the opposite: when you don’t love life, or when life doesn’t give you satisfaction, you go to the movies.” François Truffaut

The Velvet Underground

At times harrowing, at times sweet, director Todd Haynes’ lead on this documentary film effectively recreates the sensory overload of a Velvet Underground record. Haynes’ filmography is not shy of experimental musician biopics and documentaries, including I’m Not There (2007) and Sonic Youth: Disappearer (1990). In this instance, the techniques used often submerge the viewer into the avant-garde and counter-culture lifestyles depicted for the film’s larger part to hypnotising and evocative effect.

Islander

Until 8th September 2021Available to stream from Dundee Rep Theatre Kai Durkin Light spills from a door at the back of the stage inviting us into the theatrical space. The camera pans across a ghost light, an empty auditorium. From backstage, through the door, Bethany Tennick wheels a box onstage and begins setting up her Read More

Dream

Until Saturday 20 March 2021Royal Shakespeare Company; available to stream live at https://dream.online/ There is no way to overstate the heavy toll continued covid restrictions has taken on the arts industry, especially theatre. Yet, companies and practitioners persevere, experimenting with new ways to deliver remote performances. One such experiment is Dream, a new production from Read More

1917

In 1917 Sam Mendes has created an astonishing work of cinematic art through the masterful combination of continuous, single-shot cinematography by Roger Deakins; concise, effective screenplay co-written with Krysty Wilson-Cairns; and haunting, dramatic score by Thomas Newman. Mendes’ direction in this film is intense. His use of long takes and clever editing bring the viewer Read More

Knives Out

Knives Out opens with a wide-angled long take of the opulent house where a death occurs. After a time, guard-dogs, previously heard dimly behind the studio logos, bound into view and pass to the right, intent on their prey. In these few moments director/writer/producer Rian Johnson establishes the mood of the film: gothic, whodunnit, film Read More

Joker

  There is a curious quality to Todd Phillips’ Joker. Since release the film has been dissected ad nauseum, striking a chord with the popular consciousness and  sticking in the mind like a cinematic earworm. Unfortunately, despite its commercial success, the film has firmly missed the mark. Clearly, a lot of talented people worked on Read More

Waterproof

(UK, 2019) 23 March 2019, DCA Dundee based director Joel Hewett’s latest production comes to the DCA for a single screening, alongside Daniel Taylor’s One Night Stand. Recorded with partly improvised dialogue, the film trails a handful of characters as their relationships tumble, taking a gentle look at a turbulent but common situation. Hewett himself Read More

One Night Stand

Part of the double-bill screening from Fingerclick Productions this month, director Daniel Taylor’s film squeezes its way onto the screen, and hovers uncomfortably. The film tracks a group of friends on a night out, focussing on an encounter between socially awkward James (James Quinn) and regret-laden Mhairi (Mhairi Rutherford). Being shot around Taylor’s hometown of Read More

Burning

(UK/Ireland, 2019) 08-21 February, DCA Burning is the sixth feature film by South Korean director, screenwriter, and producer Lee Chang-Dong after his critically acclaimed 2010 feature Poetry. Based on the short story Barn Burning by Haruki Murakami, the film follows Lee Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in), a lazy aspiring writer who spends his days hazily going through Read More