Category Archives: Reviews

Angel-A (2005)

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Ross Birks

Had this on the old watchlist for a long time. Ten years to be specific! As a Besson fan I knew I had to get there eventually and here we are. Now, its not the greatest film ever made, nor … Continue reading →

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Margot at the Wedding (2008)

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Ross Birks

I’d never call myself a Noah Baumbach fan but his films always impress me. Margot at the Wedding seems to have faded into the shadows of Greenberg, Frances Ha and his other recent works but it’s easily one of his … Continue reading →

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Straight to Hell (1987)

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Ross Birks

After Three Businessmen I decided to jump right into another Alex Cox movie and went for Straight to Hell. Now this thing is just pure entertainment. Mashing together a kaleidoscope of genres with a who’s who cast of celebrity faces … Continue reading →

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Medium Cool (1969)

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Ross Birks

While my tastes are much more tuned to controlled style and deliberate directorial choices, I can certainly appreciate and gape in awe at documentary realism when it is applied to fiction with real verve. Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool might be … Continue reading →

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Three Businessmen (1998)

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Ross Birks

I’ve been scratching into Alex Cox’s filmography over the past year or so and Three Businessmen is my latest stop. The thing I love about Cox is that his films are extremely strange and off-kilter and totally immersed in their … Continue reading →

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Torso (1973)

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Ross Birks

A pretty run-of-the-mill 70s Euro-slasher flick when looked at with wide eyes but squint hard enough and there are some pretty innovative sequences here and there. There’s an almost wordless section near the end featuring the heroine trapped in a … Continue reading →

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Absentia (2011)

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Ross Birks

As a huge fan of Mike Flanagan’s Oculus I figured I owed it to myself to check out his previous calling card film Abesentia. Famously funded through Kickstarter, it’s a great example of how crowdfunding can really pay off. The … Continue reading →

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Valhalla Rising (2009)

Posted on September 2, 2015 by Ross Birks

Valhalla Rising was described by Nicolas Winding Refn as the beginning of “phase two” of his career. To look at it on those terms really brings a lot into focus. Billed as a science-fiction viking movie, the film is stubbornly oblique … Continue reading →

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Zabriskie Point (1970)

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Ross Birks

Shot hot the heels of Blow-Up‘s international success, Michelangelo Antonioni flew out to the barren wastelands of Americana in 1968 to make Zabriskie Point which would ultimately be released in 1970 to damning reviews. Forty five years later and Zabriskie … Continue reading →

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“Grow Up Mason”: Richard Linklater’s Boyhood (2014)

Posted on July 11, 2014 by Ross Birks

It’s not often we get a film like Boyhood. In fact we’ve never had a film like Boyhood. Not only has it been hailed as one of the best films of the year but as one of the most ambitious and revolutionary … Continue reading →

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