Tag: film
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Bad Lieutenant.
Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant takes its audience on a harrowing and trippy journey into the unhinged and depraved mind of its lead character. The title explains everything. Harvey Keitel plays a bad cop; as bad as they come. Despite learning many disturbing things about him, we never learn this cop’s name. The lieutenant scurries around his…
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Gangs of New York.
The Wolf of Wall Street marks the fifth collaborative effort between director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The duo will only need to make another three films together in order to equal the number of ‘Bobby and Marty’ joint efforts. Their first cinematic collaboration was the gruesome and relentless Gangs of New York. Scorsese is…
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Edinburgh: A Final Reflection.
Two weeks ago I handed in my MSc Film Studies thesis. Before I knew it, everything was in boxes and my time in Edinburgh had come to an end. I’m now back home in Lancashire, with several full cardboard boxes still lingering in the corner of my bedroom. Unpacking these last few boxes will mean…
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Shadow of the Vampire.
E. Elias Merhige’s Shadow of the Vampire is a very absurd film. It presents an alternative idea as to what happened on the set of F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu in 1922. The film proposes one outrageous question and expands from this point: what if actor Max Schreck was a real vampire? Shadow of the Vampire…
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Only God Forgives.
Nicolas Winding Refyn got just about everything right with Drive. Slick and sophisticated, Drive created an intense cinematic atmosphere whilst balancing romance with violent action. In the two short year that Drive has existed it has gathered a cult like following with its simplicity and suspense being viewed as refreshing and original. It is an undefinable…
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God’s Pocket.
Deep underneath its greasy, dishevelled characters, God’s Pocket has community at its heart. Outside of the plot, this is a film about the claustrophobia of a certain type of neighbourhood and the unlucky individuals who can’t get out of them. Despite the film’s negative portrayal of such a world, where education is lacking and violence…
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I Am Divine.
The collaborative efforts of director John Waters and drag queen Divine placed both actor and director at the heart of underground cinema during the late sixties, seventies and early eighties. Their friendship and collaboration is discussed frequently throughout I Am Divine – a meditation on the life and work of Divine, but more importantly a…
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All This Mayhem.
During the 1990s, two controversial brothers from Australia burst onto the skateboarding world stage. At their peak they were seeded number one and two in the world but dealing with fame, wealth and bloated egos at such a young age lead to their downfall. All This Mayhem, made up of the footage captured by the brothers and…
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Boyhood.
Richard Linklater’s Boyhood has been 12 years in the making. Following the little, and sometimes seemingly insignificant, moments that make up one boy’s journey into adulthood, this is a film with a unique spirit and ambition. Shot in a staggering 39 days, over 12 years and with a particular cast, Boyhood travels across time in an original and…
Hannah McHaffie 