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
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 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
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
(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
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
I meet Joel Hewett and Daniel Taylor, two filmmakers from Dundee, at their new office in the city centre. By new, they tell me, they mean days old. Most of the equipment is still in boxes. Parts of a shelving unit are stacked in the corner, waiting to be reconstructed. A computer is up and Read More
(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
(UK/Ireland, 2018) 3-17 January, DCA Those familiar with the films of Yorgos Lanthimos will be aware of his deft use of subtly morbid humour as a tool with which to expose and comment on the absurdity of the human condition. The characters of his previous works, such as those seen in The Lobster or The Read More
(Denmark, 2018) 26 October – 1 November, DCA If you have not heard of Swedish filmmaker Gustav Möller, it is understandable. A cinematic newcomer, he has just two films to his name. The first was a short, I Mørke (In Darkness), completed in 2015 while he was a student at the Danish Film School, but earned him Read More
