Edgar Allan Poe once said of the short story that it must have a “single mood and every sentence must build towards it”. On this count, Ilo Ilo works more like a short story and less like a novel. An accomplished film, Anthony Chen’s debut is undertaken with a surefooted understanding of character and a Read More
Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises has an air of bitter-sweet finality about it in more ways than one. Miyazaki is no stranger to the demands of morality and duty; add the film’s content and context to the mix and you can see why this animated film has had such mixed reception. Whilst not lacking any Read More
Reviving Toho’s gargantuan behemoth for his 60th birthday was always going to prove a tall order, and with Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ken Watanabe among the cast, director Gareth Edwards set expectations high for an action packed summer blockbuster to dwarf all others. However, as the old maxim runs, “the bigger they are, the Read More
It’s not often that a genre film manages to go beyond the norm, yet Jeremy Saulnier’s low-budget and action-packed Blue Ruin does just that. As a revenge thriller it provides all the gory violence and retribution expected, but it is Saulnier’s focus on the consequences of this violence that breathes new life into the genre Read More
Director Joanna Hogg is no stranger to depicting the destabilisation of familial bonds; it has been the subject of all three of her films since her debut Unrelated in 2007. Exhibition continues her exploration of the theme, dealing with the tense marriage of two artists known only as D (Viv Albertine) and H (Liam Gillick). Read More
Sequels are a tricky business. The Raid 2: Berandal seems to subscribe to the “bigger is better” school of thought that hamstrings as many sequels as it helps. So, does The Raid 2 better its predecessor? Of course not. Is it worth your time? Absolutely, unless of course you’re of a nervous or squeamish disposition, Read More
With the Scottish referendum fast approaching, it is easy to forget that despite the Yes Scotland campaign’s claim that “the UK is the fourth most unequal country in the developed world”, there are those who remain far less fortunate than we. More than a decade after the success of his Oscar winning No Man’s Land, Read More
Following the development of a touching relationship which develops between two strangers, Saajan Fernandes (Irfan Khan) and Ila (Nimrat Kaur), The Lunchbox is Ritra Batra’s tranquil debut feature as both writer and director. The story begins when the lunchbox Ila made for her husband accidentally arrives at Saajan’s desk instead. Saajan is a lonely and Read More
The Catholic Church’s dark history of sexual abuse is a well-documented topic that, within the past twenty years, has become an identity-defining scandal , serving as a damning modern symbol of religious corruption. This has produced many works, both drama and documentary, which have come out in condemnation of such abuse and its subsequent cover ups. However, Read More
Richard Ayoade’s strikingly evocative directorial style was clearly evidenced in Submarine. Though his second film is markedly bleaker, his artistic talent is still palpable. The Double is adapted from Dostoevsky’s 1846 novella of the same name, in which a timid titular councillor is confronted by his own extrovert doppelgänger as he descends into madness. Ayoade’s Read More