Harvey [1950] – ★★★★ 🐇While perhaps trivialising some serious issues, Harvey still presents a sweet and delightful comedy-drama about one eccentric man who befriends an imaginary (or possibly just invisible!) giant rabbit. This play-based film focuses on a 42 year-old bachelor Elwood P. Dowd (James Stewart) who is in the habit of talking to his friend…
Tag: Drama
“Rabbit Hole” Review
Based on a Pulitzer-winning play of the same name by David Lindsay-Abaire, Rabbit Hole is a film about a husband and wife pair, Howie (Aaron Eckhart) and Becca (Nicole Kidman), who live in suburban America and face a very difficult period in their life: they have lost their small child and are grieving. However, their coping strategies begin to diverge drastically, especially when Becca makes a contact with a teenaged boy who was involved in their son’s tragedy.
“Out to Sea”: Kramer’s Ship of Fools (1965), & Hitchcock’s Lifeboat (1944)
I. Ship of Fools [1965] – ★★★★ “When I think of the things I have seen on this ship. The stupid cruelties. The vanities. We talk about values? There’re no values. The dung we base our lives on…We are the intelligent, civilized people who carry out orders we are given. No matter what they may…
“Death of a Cyclist” Review
Death of a Cyclist (Muerte de un ciclista) [1955] – ★★★★ Death of a Cyclist is a Spanish-language film that was the winner of the FIPRESCI Award at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Juan Antonio Bardem (Main Street (1956)), this social realist film tells of a couple of secret, privileged lovers residing in Madrid who…
“I, Daniel Blake” Review
I, Daniel Blake [2016] – ★★★★★ Winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake is a kind of film whose theme of the individual vs. the system, brutal honesty and underlying power make it a compulsory watch for everyone. The story centres on Daniel Blake (Dave Johns), a…
“Departures” Review
Departures [2008] – ★★★★1/2 Departures is the Japanese winner of the 2009 Academy Award in the category of the Best Foreign Language Picture. Loosely based on a memoir by Shinmon Aoki titled Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician, it tells the story of Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), an ex-cellist who comes to his home…
Recently Watched: The Red Shoes (1948), West Side Story (1961), & Black Narcissus (1947)
I. The Red Shoes [1948] – ★★★★1/2 The Red Shoes is about the rise to stardom of a dancer Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) who falls under the strict control of one charismatic, but elusive and mysterious company director Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook). Page becomes truly famous after appearing in Lermontov’s ballet “The Red Shoes”, but…
“Joker” Review
Joker [2019] – ★★★1/2 Directed by Todd Phillips (The Hangover (2011)), Joker is a latest, much-hyped film starring Joaquin Phoenix (The Master (2012)) in the titular role of Arthur Fleck or Joker, a stand-up comedian fallen on hard times, who resorts to violence in Gotham City to avenge wrongs allegedly committed against him. Being supported…
“25th Hour” Review
25th Hour [2002] – ★★★★1/2 Today (11th September) marks 18 years since the 9/11 terror attacks in New York City, and I thought I would review a film that incorporates the post-9/11 atmosphere – Spike Lee’s film 25th Hour – as a tribute so that we never forget what happened and what it meant. Spike…
“Midsommar” Review
Midsommar [2019] – ★★★★★ ☀️ In this immersive, subtle and unsettling horror master-work, Ari Aster takes his audience by the hand, and slowly and surely introduces the disturbing beneath the festive, relaxing and innocent. Ari Aster takes horror to a completely new level in his latest film Midsommar. Inspired by The Wicker Man and horror…
“Museo” Review
Museo (Museum) [2018] – ★★★ This heist movie is by Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios (Güeros (2014)), starring Gael Garcia Bernal (No (2012), The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)) and Leonardo Ortizgris (Güeros). Loosely based on a real story, the film won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the Berlin International Film Festival 2018, and is about…
“Everybody Knows” Review
Everybody Knows (Todos lo saben) [2018] – ★★1/2 This mystery-thriller comes from acclaimed director Asghar Farhadi (The Salesman (2016)), and stars such big stars as Penelope Cruz (Volver (2006)), Javier Bardem (Mother! (2017)) and Ricardo Darin (The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)). It thus seems as though this film can do no wrong, but, unfortunately,…
“The Little Stranger” Review
The Little Stranger [2018] – ★★★ This film adaptation of Sarah Waters’s novel The Little Stranger has had some bad public reviews, and, so, naturally, I was curious to see it. In the story, Dr Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) reacquaints himself with one stately house (Hundreds Hall) he used to admire in his childhood. This is…
“Burning” Review
Burning [2018] – ★★★ “You don’t have to convince yourself that a mandarin orange exists, you have to forget that it does not exist.” (Haemi, explaining the art of pantomime in Burning). In Chang-dong Lee’s film Burning, Jongsoo (Ah-In Yoo) is a country lad who rekindles friendship and begins a romance with Haemi (Jong-seo Jeon),…
“The Children Act” Review
The Children Act [2018] – ★★★1/2 “It was a logical extension of his fantasy of a long sea voyage with her, of their talking all day as they paced the rolling deck. Logical and insane. And innocent. The silence wound itself around them and bound them” (Ian McEwan, The Children Act). The Children Act is…
Films that “grapple” with Faith: “First Reformed” (2018) and “Novitiate” (2017)
First Reformed [2018] – ★★★★★ First Reformed comes from director Paul Schrader, who co-wrote the scripts to such films as Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980), and who also directed American Gigolo (1980) and Affliction (1997). Clearly inspired by Robert Bresson’s classic film Diary of a Country Priest (1951), First Reformed tells of Reverend…
“The Mercy” Review
The Mercy [2018] – ★★1/2 ⛵ There is a method in his madness. This is the way some were able to characterise Donald Crowhurst’s insane desire and, ultimately, attempt to finish a single-handed, non-stop round-the world trip or the Golden Glove (Yacht) Race sponsored by Sunday Times in 1968. Completely amateur, Crowhurst, nevertheless, entered the…
“The Handmaid’s Tale” Series Review
The Handmaid’s Tale [2017] “There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.” (Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale, 1985: 34) “Humanity is so adaptable, my mother would say. Truly amazing…
“Youth” Review
Youth [2015] – ★★★★ One of my favourite actors – Sir Michael Caine turned 85 this week, and this is my belated opportunity to celebrate this date by reviewing one of Caine’s more recent films directed by the eminent Italian director Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty (2013)). Youth is about Fred Ballinger (Caine), a retired…
“The Florida Project” Review
The Florida Project [2017] – ★★★★1/2 Sean Baker (Tangerine (2015)) has produced something special – a powerful, unforgettable film about the innocence, joys, freedoms and wonders of childhood played out in the context of social and economic exclusion in Florida, US. The Florida Project has been very unjustly ignored by the Academy in the forthcoming…
Spotlight on Film 