Christmas season is upon us and that means one thing: Christmas films! Kicking off the festive viewing is Nancy Meyers’ 2006 romcom The Holiday. Following two women, LA-based Amanda and Surrey-based Iris, who are successful in their careers but not so much in love. They agree to swap homes for two weeks over the holidays… Read More The Holiday (2006)
My festival coverage for Raindance has begun and I can’t believe I was accepted for another festival. I wanted to make sure that, like London Film Festival, I pick a variety of films that are all different. The first film on my watch list is the French-language film The Eagle’s Nest. Made on a £5,000… Read More Raindance Film Festival 2020: The Eagle’s Nest
Film number 10 on my Festival watch list is one of the horrors I have been eagerly awaiting this year since its premiere at Sundance. Possessor is the latest ultraviolent offering written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg. Following Tasya Vos, an assassin who works by controlling the bodies of a pawn so her real identity… Read More London Film Festival 2020: Possessor
With Soul only showing at the BFI Southbank cinema at the London Film Festival, I was worried there wouldn’t be an animation for me to watch. When I saw Cartoon Saloon’s new feature Wolfwalkers on the list, I knew immediately that I had to watch it. Directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart and based… Read More London Film Festival 2020: Wolfwalkers
Lulu Wang’s second feature is a brilliant insight into a millennial experience on being an immigrant in America and the struggle for identity. Following Chinese-American millennial Billi (Awkwafina), The Farewell travels from America to China as Billi’s Grandma, Nai Nai (Zhao Shu-zhen), falls ill with terminal cancer. What throws an even heavier spanner in the… Read More The Farewell (2019)
One of the films I was dying to watch last year but not got round to watching was the stellar The Peanut Butter Falcon. A first time directorial effort by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz and featuring their close friend and aspiring actor Zack Gottsagen who dominates in his first performance as Zak, a young… Read More The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)
This classic from the directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (collectively known as ‘The Archers’) has had somewhat of a resurgence in years of late. Based on the 1881 Jacques Offenbach opera of the same name which in turn is inspired by stories from E.T.A Hoffmann, The Tales of Hoffmann is a performative experience that… Read More The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)
One of the most beautiful and somber films to come out of the 2010s is A Ghost Story written and directed by David Lowery. Premiering at Sunday’s Fil. Festival and distributed by the much-loved A24, A Ghost Story follows a young married couple C (Casey Affleck) and M (Rooney Mara) and the aftermath of the… Read More A Ghost Story (2017)
Lynne Ramsey’s You Were Never Really Here follows hitman Joe who specialises in retrieving young girls from the clutches of underground paedophiles and trafficking. He is tasked by a New York senator to retrieve his daughter, Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov), who has been kidnapped and to eliminate those who took her by the most violent means… Read More You Were Never Really Here (2017)
In my series where I look at the emerging directors this century, it was only matter of time before I discuss the work of horror director Robert Eggers. Usually associated with his A24 cohort Ari Aster, Eggers’ two films are psychological studies of its characters with a darker colour palette than Aster’s work. His 2015… Read More Robert Eggers: Double Feature
Smaller Pictures Film 