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Author Archives: Ross Birks
Violent Saturday (1955)
Very impressed with how this interweaves a portrait of small town melodrama with a brewing heist picture. The structure is incredibly clear, deliberate and simple but once all the loose threads converge in the final act, it’s no less satisfying. … Continue reading
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Winter’s Child (1989)
A little too soap opera-ish for my liking – cheating boyfriends, abandoned children, unrequited love etc. – but Assayas nevertheless stages it all with a confidence and simplicity that keeps it engaging and puts the performances front and centre. Everyone … Continue reading
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Disorder (1986)
Assayas’ feel for this era and his fondness for the music activates every deliberate frame. The steely, blue-tinged photography makes the whole thing feel metallic and cold yet the performances, notably that of the actresses, gives it a pulse. Quite … Continue reading
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Trapped Alive (1988)
One of those 80’s slasher Frankensteins which feels like a montage of scenes from other movies, just re-cast and re-shot for a quick VHS payout. Still, there’s enough disjointed what-the-fuckery to make it a worthy film of its kind, now … Continue reading
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Track 29 (1988)
One of Roeg’s greatest gifts, and also, occasionally, his crux, is how he can make even simplicity seem complex. The story and goings on of Track 29 would barely fill a paragraph in a standard film review when broken down into a … Continue reading
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Detour (1945)
A seminal fleapit noir that feels like it was found in an ashtray among cigarette stubs smeared with lipstick stains. Lots of textbook frugal mastery here with an excess of voice over, shaky opticals, rear projection – basically every trick … Continue reading
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Poltergeist (1982)
I didn’t think much to Poltergeist when I first saw it a few years back. I figured I’d simply arrived too late for its imagery and shock-tactics to have full impact. The fact it was awkwardly stuck between the two extremes of … Continue reading
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Out of Blue (2019)
An initially perplexing mind-meld of pulp genre and heady concepts that eventually coalesces into something truly unique. I’m a big fan of Carol Morley’s previous two films, Dreams of Life and The Falling, and this continues her notion of attacking both genre and … Continue reading
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The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (1970)
A textbook Ernesto Gastaldi-penned, pre-Argento giallo being that it is far more interested in mystery, intrigue and eroticism than poking your eyeballs out with visceral murder set-pieces. It’s still somewhat kinky though, with lead beauty Dagmar Lassander getting embroiled with … Continue reading
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Doom Asylum (1988)
A charmingly ramshackle horror comedy that never really works as either. Shot on film but finished on video – no matter what format you watch it on, the title card will always appear in hazy SD resolution – Doom Asylum is from … Continue reading
"This Film Should Be Played Loud" 