Category: Film
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The Royal Tenenbaums.
This is possibly Wes Anderson’s most complete and perfect film. Often I find his approach a little too extreme and absurd. I like his films but I find that they sometimes drag on for too long. I couldn’t help but admire the artistry that went into Fantastic Mr. Fox but it drifted so far away from the…
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Rushmore.
Wes Anderson’s whimsical cinema sometimes gets a little irritating. For me, Anderson films are divided into two very distinct categories; the ones that work and the ones that drift off a little. Those that work include The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom and of course Rushmore. I like both Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Darjeeling Limited very much but even a fan like myself…
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Nymphomaniac.
Lars Von Trier’s latest work proves just how simultaneously serious and silly he can be. Nymphomaniac is the final in his trilogy about depression; the first two films in the series being Antichrist and Melancholia. Split into two volumes, the film’s total running time is over four hours. In Denmark it was released as one five hour film, in the UK…
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The Invisible Woman.
Ralph Fiennes is turning out to be a wonderful director. In fact, his direction is the best thing about his second film, The Invisible Woman. Fiennes plays Charles Dickens in cinema’s retelling of the writer and his mistress, Ellen Ternan. The film is based on the book by Claire Tomalin. Fiennes’ drama explores the affair between…
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Only Lovers Left Alive.
When you spend the duration of a film asking yourself whether or not you’re enjoying it, you’ve probably already answered your own question. Jim Jarmusch’s take on the ‘vampire movie’ is under the impression that it is a lot cooler than it really is. It is too self-aware for its own good but that isn’t…
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The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Wes Anderson’s return to the screen consists of his most stylised piece yet. The Grand Budapest Hotel makes for a fun watch with plenty of laughs all around. It’s up there in the better half of this whimsical director’s portfolio. It is certainly less whimsical than most. This seems to be Anderson at his driest. The story…
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Edinburgh: February.
My most recent month in the cobbled city has been incredibly busy. I currently find myself trudging home at 4am as Sunday mornings dawn and I finish another painful Saturday night bar shift. This is agonising at times but worth it to fund my studies; something I have written in these diary entries repeatedly and…
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The Armstrong Lie.
When I was thirteen years old a craze took over my school. In a matter of weeks the most popular accessory to be wearing was a ‘Livestrong’ band. Every other person at my school had a bright yellow band around one of their wrists. For my generation, this is remembered as more of a trend…
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Dallas Buyers Club.
David France’s How to Survive a Plague was a documentary all about the power of activism which helped destroy the death sentence that came hand in hand with the diagnosis of AIDS. The film studies the protests and passion of a group of inspiring individuals who fought with governments and establishments in order to demand drugs and…
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Her.
Visually, Spike Jonze’s futuristic romantic new feature film, Her, is breathtaking. Crisp and bright, Her is bathed in pastel tints and the warm glows of a not so distant future. The film’s aesthetic remains consistently refreshing from the opening detailed close up of actor Joaquin Phoenix’s face to the closing images of a city, lit up and buzzing with…
Hannah McHaffie 