Tag: Review
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Shin Godzilla.
With nuclear war feeling more of a potential imminent reality than ever before, we can welcome a new Godzilla film with open arms. Since the creature’s iconic debut back in 1954, our monstrous protagonist has taken many different forms – partly because of the changing technological abilities of cinema but also as a result of…
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The Big Sick.
From Jenny Slate’s desperately underrated Obvious Child to the wit and woe of The Skeleton Twins, American indie cinema has had a lot to say about modern romance in recent years. With the huge success of Aziz Ansari’s hit Netflix series Master of None and more recently the deeply cynical comical tragedy Friends from College, we find ourselves in a new…
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Baby Driver.
Edgar Wright finally makes his highly anticipated directorial return following on from the underwhelming The World’s End, the final instalment of his ‘Three Flavours Cornetto’ trilogy. Since its energetic SXSW premiere earlier this year, Baby Driver has been a much talked about potential hit of the year and finally pulls into cinemas this Wednesday. The…
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The Cinematically Vulnerable: Giulietta Masina.
La Strada and Nights of Cabiria; two astounding films from Federico Fellini, two ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ Academy Award winners and two heartfelt protagonists brought to life by the captivating Giulietta Masina. With actor and director also entwined as husband and wife, the results of the couple’s cinematic collaboration are staggering. Masina and Fellini marries 11…
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My Life as a Courgette.
After the passing of his alcoholic mother, a young boy is processed at a police station. Nicknamed Courgette by his mother, he refuses to answer to his real name. He carries with him two precious possessions; memories of each parent he has lost. Courgette finds himself at a small home where other children who “don’t…
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Colossal.
Booted out of her New York apartment by her exasperated partner, Gloria finds herself back in her childhood town, sleeping on the floor of her now empty family home. Having been out of work for over a year Gloria’s life has become a toxic cycle of heavy late night drinking and sleeping through the day…
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Alien: Covenant.
Alien is undoubtedly a near-perfect film which continues to dazzle and impress me each time I return to it. Ridley Scott’s bold aesthetic choices and simplistic approach to both the film’s story and visuals results in something altogether cinematically extraordinary. Although many believe an argument can be made for James Cameron’s Aliens, I see little greatness…
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All This Panic.
Shot over three years, Jenny Gage’s All This Panic is a monumental achievement; a glorious meditation on the awkward and undefined transition between childhood and adulthood. Focussing on the changing lives of a small handful of Brooklyn girls, it is a heartbreakingly nostalgic documentary, which expertly captures those bizarre, minor, authentic details that define the…
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Mulholland Drive.
The first time I saw Mulholland Drive was on a dim laptop screen in the back of a caravan. Even in this least cinematic of locations I found myself intoxicated by David Lynch’s chaotic meditation on the putrid nature of Hollywood. This weekend I finally saw it for the second time on a much larger screen as…
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Free Fire.
Ben Wheatley’s back catalogue is rich in style and substance, from the dark horror and humour of Sightseers to the grit and claustrophobia of Down Terrace to the suspense and ultimate chaos of Kill List to the artistic hypnosis of the triumphant A Field in England. Despite being unconvinced by High Rise, I couldn’t help but marvel at its textured layers of satirical…
Hannah McHaffie 