WARNING: This (extra long) review / ‘dissection’ contains spoilers, mild vitriol and utter disappointment. You have been warned. So, one of the most eagerly anticipated movies of the year arrives and, good grief, why did it bother? I should mention now that I was looking forward to this film possibly more than anything else this […]
This year the organisers of the Edinburgh Film Festival decided to bring back the popular ‘Surprise Movie’ event which has been absent from its programme for the last couple of years. The event was a sell-out, and as the audience settled into their seats before the film began there was a palpable sense of excitement […]
To a whole generation of movie fans, Bobcat Goldthwait will forever be crazy Officer Zed from the Police Academy films, but a quick look at his recent CV reveals the emergence of a talented writer and director with a penchant for sophisticated black comedy. God Bless America is Goldthwait’s latest satirical attempt to mine comedy […]
With Shadow Dancer, director James Marsh (Man on Wire, Project Nim) takes us back to a time when – in the UK, at least – the word “terrorist” did not automatically carry connotations of the Islamic ‘other’. A fine example of the gritty yet increasingly glamorous film-making for which the BBC is developing a reputation, […]
Every once in a while, a film comes along which seems to tick all the right boxes. Beautifully shot, with a compelling story, complex characters and plenty of edge-of-your-seat moments, Peter Chan’s kung-fu detective thriller Dragon (Wu Xia) is just such a film, and makes for a stunning cinematic experience. Set in China’s Yunnan province […]
The Fourth Dimension is a strange beast. Although billed as a single feature, it is in fact a succession of three short films – one American, one Russian, one Polish – all of which present their own unique take on the impact that the fourth, temporal dimension has on people’s lives. A series of quotes […]