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Category Archives: Reviews
Art History (2011)
Art History feels like a companion piece to Swanberg’s similarly themed The Zone in the way it zeroes in on the conversations and behaviours that occur around shooting sex scenes. This one is more thickly veiled though, as Swanberg and his actors seem … Continue reading
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
A muscular procedural thoroughly heightened by McTiernan’s piercing, prowling sense of space as well as Jan de Bont’s remarkable skills with light and shadow. The chess-like plotting and limited locations threaten to become tedious at several points making the film … Continue reading
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Tagged 1990, Alex Baldwin, Jan de Bont, John McTiernan, Sam Neill, Scott Glenn
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Le amiche (1955)
Antonioni throws us into the eye of the storm, within a circle of love addicts personified by a clique of cruel women. When one of them tries to commit suicide to cure her broken heart, it is outsider Clelia (Eleonora … Continue reading
Privacy Setting (2013)
This starts off like some awful student horror film about a voyeuristic creep, full of student film tics and non-flourishes. Then it takes a turn and becomes something else, something more playful and less insidious and a lot of the … Continue reading
All the Light in the Sky (2012)
This greatly benefits from Swanberg turning his lens on older, more seasoned actors. Jane Adams is deservedly front and centre and the film feels like her property. Like Adams, her character is a mature character actress trying to navigate a … Continue reading
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Tagged 2012, Jane Adams, Joe Swanberg, Larry Fessenden, Sophia Takal
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Joe Swanberg deals with the consequences of his filmmaking in The Zone (2011)
The ferocious realism of Joe Swanberg’s films often leave me questioning where the line between fact and fiction begins to blur. As seen through the pixelations of a low-fi digital lens, the intimacy can be so intense – the nudity … Continue reading
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Tagged Joe Swanberg, Kate Lynn Sheil, Lawrence Michael Levine, Sophia Takal, The Zone
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The Lady Without Camelias (1953)
La signora senza camelie could also be translated as “Melodrama and Film Sets”. Antonioni’s scathing takedown of the Italian film industry follows an actress called Clara (Lucia Bosé) as she navigates a world of seedy moviemakers and greedy agents, exclusively … Continue reading
Sing Street (2016)
A delightful speaker-blast of kitchen-sink escapism which further proves John Carney to be the modern master of the movie musical. Sing Street makes you feel good, it makes you tap your feet; it’s a vision of Irish streets in the … Continue reading
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
This is so unlike anything else Eastwood has ever directed that it feels borderline experimental for him. In adapting a famously populated true crime novel, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil works best as a document of an … Continue reading
The Lair of the White Worm (1988)
Even when working to create a silly horror mystery full of campy entertainment value, as he is here, Ken Russell can’t help but transform it into A Ken Russell Movie. Lair of the White Worm works best when it’s explicitly … Continue reading
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Tagged 1988, Amanda Donohoe, Hugh Grant, Ken Russell, Peter Capaldi
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"This Film Should Be Played Loud" 