History repeating itself… The advertising blurb announced that thirty years after the defeat of the Galactic Empire, the galaxy faces a new threat from the First Order: Supreme Commander Snoke and (a wannabe Vader) Kylo Ren. To compare Star Wars: The Force Awakens with Star Wars: A New Hope is perhaps unfair but I can’t Read More
Steven Spielberg’s films, with their interest in uplifting character arcs and nostalgic portraits of the past, are often criticised as overly sentimental and nostalgic. Bridge of Spies does little to dissuade this criticism. Its Cold War political narrative is equally as interested in the story of James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks), a fundamentally good person Read More
The Forbidden Room is not your average film, even for the arthouse cinema scene. It is essentially a series of vignettes, which, rather than occurring linearly one after another, interweave. In one segment a character will have a dream which itself becomes a completely different film. Some of these vignettes appear for five or ten Read More
As one of the most nominated films of the year Carol sinks only your heart, and exceeds expectations. Set in early 1950s Manhattan – a tough climate for sexual deviancy and independent women – Todd Haynes’ latest picture of homosexuality is his most refined and subtly powerful. Adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Read More
“Nothing endures but the land”, and nothing quite captures the overarching theme of Lewis Grassic Gibbons’ classic novel than this, its most famous quote. Sunset Song, the first novel of the trilogy “A Scots Quair”, is set in The Mearns (now Aberdeenshire) on the eve of the First World War. Widely regarded as one of Read More
At 148 minutes Spectre is the longest running Bond film to date. In a franchise with over fifty years of car chases, bikini clad Bond girls, chauvinistic spies and vodka martinis our expectations are high. With this in mind, director Sam Mendes also has the arduous task of positioning Spectre as a sequel to the Read More
When considering Norfolk pumpkin farms, one rarely thinks “oppressive” or “Sean Harris needs an ASBO”, but Guy Myhill’s directorial debut prompts thoughts of both, in this haunting yet captivating coming-of-age story. After leaving school, Goob (Liam Walpole) finds himself trapped in the Fens, despairing over his mother Janet’s (Sienna Guillory) abusive boyfriend and stock-car racer Read More
Bande de Filles (Girlhood), written and directed by Céline Sciamma, took awards ceremonies by storm when released last year, and deservedly so. The film has certainly not gone unappreciated, with eleven award nominations, including the Queer Palm and the SACD Prize at Cannes, and six wins, among which were the Special Jury Prize at the Read More
It is difficult to remain objective in reviewing certain films, not least when they are documentaries concerning the foreign policy your country’s leaders have pursued over the past fifteen years in defiance of the public’s expressions of disapproval in their actions. But let us try nonetheless. The film’s director, Amir Amirani, has worked on We Read More
Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd is a triumph of a novel and might provide a perfect base for an adaptation. Its tale of human perseverance, the dangers of love and commerce, and the battles of a strong willed woman are both timelessly entertaining and thought-provoking. Unfortunately, that is nearly all that can be Read More