Tag: Review
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Iona.
Scott Graham’s Iona references both the film’s setting and its central character. Iona and her teenage son wash up on the shores of Iona, running from a violent past in Glasgow. It’s instantly apparent that Iona is returning rather than arriving. For Iona, the island is a place filled with happy memories but also a…
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Anomalisa.
Within the beige walls of a mediocre hotel, Michael Stone chats awkwardly to his wife on the phone, orders room service and makes painful small-talk with employees. From the first moments we meet Michael we sense his exhaustion. Attempting to communicate and interact with those around him, for whom he does not care, Michael maintains…
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The Grump.
Director Dome Karukoski has a personal connection to the subject matter of his latest film. The Grump is about one man’s isolation in a modern world he doesn’t recognise. In this case the grump is an ageing Finnish gentleman who built the house he lives in, eats the potatoes he grows and doesn’t trust anyone as…
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Hitchcock/Truffaut.
Hitchcock/Truffaut shares its names with a quintessential book for film-makers and film lovers alike. In 1962 Alfred Hitchcock was at the top of his game, his career at the beginning of its end. Two years earlier he had terrified audiences with Psycho and revolutionized the horror genre by essentially inventing ‘the slasher film’. Francois Truffaut’s…
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Bone Tomahawk.
S. Craig Zahler bursts onto the scene with his directorial début, Bone Tomahawk. Set in the old West, and centring around a rescue mission, lead by a determined and loyal Sheriff, this is a world of dust, blood and ego. When two citizens are kidnapped by a mysterious and threatening tribe, a devoted husband, an…
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Janis: Little Girl Blue.
If you look for this documentary under the image tab of the search engine of your choice, you will come across many a photographed portrait of Janis Joplin. Very little else emerges except perhaps the occasional film poster. This is somewhat reflective of Janis: Little Girl Blue, a film deeply concerned with image and painting…
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Deadpool.
At one point in Deadpool there is discussion and commentary over the poop emoji. For those to whom this is unfamiliar, it is just one of the many miniature images that many of us now send to each other, via our smart phones, in the place of dialogue and verbal communication. The emoji in question is…
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Trumbo.
Since the film industry was heinously targeted in the 1950s by Joseph McCarthy and his communist witch hunts, it seems only natural that we would make films about it. The latest in this long line of Hollywood blacklist melodramas is Trumbo, directed by Jay Roach. Best known for bringing us the Austin Powers trilogy, Roach…
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Youth.
Returning from the tremendous success of The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino now bestows upon us the gift of Youth. Vacationing in the Alps with his daughter, a retired composer is invited to conduct his work, one last time – this time, for royalty. He firmly declines. Meanwhile his best friend, an ageing movie director, works…
Hannah McHaffie 