Tag: Film Review
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Jan Švankmajer’s Alice: Surrealism & Curiosity
Jan Švankmajer is recognised and revered as much for his animation as he is his filmmaking. Combining puppetry, stop motion and film his work is admired by directors, animators and artists alike. And you only need to look as far as his 1988 adaptation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to see how surrealism, as a…
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Top Picks from SXSW 2021
A year on from the sudden and devastating cancellation of SXSW 2020, the festival returned last week with a virtual bang. The 2021 (online) festival was jam-packed with indie movie treats and I was delighted to make my way through their vast, varied programme. Their online viewing platform and scheduling tools were incredibly easy to…
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Top Picks from Glasgow Film Festival 2021
From SXSW 2020 being cancelled this time last year, it took seven months for film festivals to migrate successfully to running 100% online. In October, London Film Festival created a universal and super accessible celebration of film which provided audiences across the country with new access to a festival which has often felt out of…
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Never Rarely Sometimes Always.
Never. Rarely. Sometimes. Always: A multiple choice many will be familiar with in some form or another. These are the typical options that face anyone being asked to assess their mental and physical wellbeing in a medical setting. These words can appear anywhere from a dentist surgery form to a direct question from a therapist.…
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The Assistant.
“We need to strip the system down and rebuild it and make sure that things are fair and equitable for women. How do we examine the microaggressions that can strip a young woman of self confidence, that prevents her from climbing the ranks and do what the boys are doing?” These were recent words from…
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My Favourite Films of 2019.
This year, documentaries, horror films and adaptations of classic American literature all make it into my top ten. Following on from Get Out, Jordan Peele exceeded all expectations with the astonishing, original and confident Us. It’s closely followed at the top of my list by Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart which hit a painful, truthful nerve as well…
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Cats.
PSA: I’m a Cats apologist. As a child I would watch the VHS of the theatre production on repeat. I knew every jellicle cat’s name. The beauty of the musical, despite being an 80s coke-fuelled fever-dream of a production, is in the performers’ athleticism, the striking stage make-up and the extraordinary junkyard stage design. All…
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For Sama.
Reviewing documentaries is a very different beast to reviewing fiction. There are different considerations to be taken when attempting to weigh up the positive and negative qualities of a documentary film. Attempting to review For Sama is a whole separate challenge. Where to start with this compelling, horrifying, masterful movie? Director Waad Al-Kateab filmed many…
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Midsommar.
After leaving an eerie impression with family horror hit Hereditary, Director Ari Aster returns a year later with Midsommar. Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, it is broken relationships that sits at the heart of this folk-festival nightmare. Dani, our grief-stricken protagonist accompanies her boyfriend and his friends on an academic expedition to Sweden…
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In Fabric.
Infamous for the intensity his film’s exude, Peter Strickland returns with In Fabric – following his critically acclaimed Dukes of Burgundy and Berberian Sound Studio. Though different in subject, all of his films overflow with an evident love of cinema, with Strickland having proved himself a master of bringing together the technical elements that make his films so…
Hannah McHaffie 