“They’re Amish!” (Witness, Peter Weir, US, 1985, 112 minutes) A young boy, having witnessed a grisly murder in a train station bathroom, must help police to find the killer; his widowed mother, lonely and grieving, catches the eye of the cop assigned to the case and a brief emotional affair ensues. So far, so standard-romantic-thriller. [...]
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“I’M GONNA BE A STAR!” (Withnail & I, Bruce Robinson, UK, 1986, 107 mins) “Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day, and for once I’m inclined to believe Withnail is right. We are indeed drifting into the arena of the unwell.” Being a student, it is easy to sympathise with being [...]
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The only good alien (District 9, Neill Blomkamp, USA/New Zealand/Canada/South Africa, 2009, 112 min) If every film was like the exposition in District 9, think of how much faster we’d get to the point. From the first shaky clips of nerdy Afrikaner bureaucrat Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley) in the low-ceilinged office of Blackwater-ish [...]
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Libertines and love triangles (Valmont, Milos Forman, France/US, 1989, 137 minutes) Colin Firth’s career has taken an interesting turn over the last two years. Following a string of woeful romantic comedies, in which he invariably played the same stiff-upper-lip character over and over again, his last two starring roles have been nothing short of revelatory: [...]
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Bliss and the Abyss 2010 has been the year of the underdog: unlikely heroes and darkly ambiguous endings have dominated Hollywood narrative cinema, with a few rule-proving exceptions (predominantly from the animated stable). Several outstanding movies achieved unexpected success, perhaps due to an otherwise mediocre slate of releases. This story you know. Meanwhile, beyond the [...]
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Loss, Love and Light (Chunking Express, Wong Kar Wai, 1994, 98mins) All too often contemporary cinema, particularly Hollywood cinema, falls victim to the trap of the narrative formula. Deconstructing the narrative of most films reveals a dry, uninventive approach to profit driven film making. ‘The quest’ is often mentioned in screenwriting guidebooks, also referred to [...]
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Not Just Another Teen Horror Film (Ginger Snaps, John Fawcett, Canada, 2000, 108 mins) [Warning: Some big spoilers, but the ending is not revealed.] Ginger Snaps is a refreshing take on the horror genre, not least because of the relationship between the two protagonists, one of whom becomes the antagonist. The Fitzgerald sisters have a [...]
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‘Jesus Christ is a vampire’ (Cronos, Guillermo del Toro, Mexico, 1993, 94 mins) Most filmmakers dealing in vampire fiction have a tendency to ignore a certain fact. Guillermo del Toro, on the other hand, has embraced it as a major aspect of his debut film Cronos. The fact is this: Vampires have a lot in [...]
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Here May You See the Tyrant (The Tragedy of Macbeth, Roman Polanski, UK/US, 1971, 120 mins) A filmic adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘Scottish Play’ financed by a softcore porn tycoon, featuring scenes of horrific violence, and made in the aftermath of the brutal slaying of the director’s wife and unborn child; on paper, Roman Polanski’s The [...]
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(Rain Man, Barry Levinson, USA, 1988, 133 minutes) Doctor: ‘Are you autistic Ray?’ Raymond Babbitt: ‘I don’t think so. Definitely not’ The performances of Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman mark ‘Rain Man’ as a captivating, thought provoking, engaging classic. The film won Oscars for Best Director, Best Actor, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay; awards [...]
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