Positively narcissistic, Xavier Dolan’s newest film is a stylish and suspenseful tale of homoeroticism in rural Canada. It focuses on the eponymous Tom (Dolan himself) and his psychological journey as he becomes trapped in a sadomasochistic relationship with Quebec farmer Francis (Pierre-Yves Cardinal). Tom journeys to the farm for the funeral of his boyfriend Guillaume, Read More
(France 2014) 21-27 March, DCA Jalil Lespert’s Yves Saint Laurent is one of two 2014 biopics about the famous fashion designer who was born in 1936 and died in 2008. Pierre Niney, as Yves, delivers a performance which movingly captures the shy, mischievous insouciance of the Algerian-born gay artiste whose rise from Christian Dior’s assistant Read More
(France 2013) 14-20 March DCA Camus’s L’etranger meets Al Pacino’s Cruising in Stranger by the Lake (L’Inconnu du lac), the story of a killer at the gay beach on Lake Sainte Croix in the Côte D’Azur. Alain Guiraudie, winner of the Best Director award at Cannes in 2013, seems singularly uninterested in thinking about psychological motivation Read More
Despite my admiration for his style and wit, even I can admit that many of Wes Anderson’s films have rough edges. Sheer narrative drops trip you into ridges in the mind of the filmmaker that sometimes feels too personal, while jarring stalagmites can obstruct your understanding of the presence and truth of the story. Anderson Read More
I feel bad giving a movie a negative review, especially when it contains an amazing cast. When I heard that Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, Matt Damon, George Clooney (also director, producer and co-writer) Jean Durjardin and John Goodman had all come together to star in The Monuments Men, I was excited to say the least. The strength Read More
“How can it possibly work – a book describing a film, more or less shot by shot?” asks Tess Hadley, author of The London Train (2011), in response to Geoff Dyer’s Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room. And indeed it shouldn’t. A thorough account of Tarkovsky’s 1979 film Stalker, Read More
With its star-studded cast, Tracy Lett’s adaptation of his own Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play, August: Osage County, directed by John Wells, can hardly fail to pull in the crowds. Of course, the family feuds, disintegrating marriages, adultery, and addictions which feature so strongly certainly help. Early on in the film, alcoholic poet Bev Weston (Sam Read More
After watching 12 Years a Slave, I felt the way I’d felt after visiting Auschwitz: raw and exposed, and gripped by a keen sadness. It induced in me something like a state of shock. A history long known and its facts long understood, but its implications for humanity suddenly made real. We all learn about Read More
Much like its predecessor, Peter Jackson’s latest film inevitably falls victim to the success of its forebears. No film deserves to be judged by such high standards, but Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy is trapped between the exceptional standards set by his previous Tolkien adaptations and the hallowed source material itself. Admittedly Jackson and his team have Read More
Director David O. Russell strikes again with another darkly comedic and original take on a genre film set to a zesty score by Danny Elfman. Loosely based on the F.B.I. ABSCAM operation in the 1970’s, the film centres on renamed con artists Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and his mistress Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) as they Read More