Tag: Movie Reviews
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Honeymooner, a reflection
For a movie that begins with the line ‘no one should be alone on their wedding day’, Honeymooner is spectacularly uplifting and fun. Filmed on a £45,000 budget it takes director, Col Spector’s, script, some brilliant acting and intersperses it all around the pubs and pretty locations in Camden Town. The giggles start early when…
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Black Swan, A Reflection
We all know the story. Virginal girl, pure and sweet, trapped in the body of a swan. She desires freedom, but only true love can break the spell. Her wish is nearly granted in the form of a prince. But before he can declare his love, her lustful twin, the Black Swan, tricks and seduces…
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Dogtooth at the Academy Awards
The Greek movie, Dogtooth, has received its ninth nomination, among its five wins, since its release in 2009. This is no ordinary announcement however, because unlike the Montréal Festival of New Cinema or the Mar del Plata Film Festival, we know that the whole world will be watching when the results are announced for Best…
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Blue Valentine, Already Broken
A Thai Zen master is asked about his cup, perched precariously on the edge of a shelf, and why he doesn’t keep it safer. He replies that the cup is already broken. He drinks from it and enjoys it but when the wind knocks it over he says ‘of course’, he had already let it…
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Bad Lieutenant, a reflection
New Orleans, Louisiana: post-Katrina. Lieutenant Terence McDonagh, played by Nicholas Cage, walks in to a house already occupied by policemen and sheet covered bodies on the ground. He passes his colleague, Stevie Pruit, played by Val Kilmer, who updates him on the situation. Five murders, execution style. Pruit says don’t look. Terence lifts up the…
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Kings of Pastry, a reflection
The Kings of Pastry was part of the Exquisite Cuisine season shown on BBC Four “which served up a mouth-watering menu of programmes in search of perfection in food”. As a joint venture between the BBC and VPRO (part of the Dutch Broadcasting System) the two directors follow chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, co-founder of Chicago’s French…
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Dogtooth, a reflection
A couple of warnings about Dogtooth, stay until the end and don’t get lost in the content. The synopsis describes it as a film about a dysfunctional family where the parents keep the children away from outside influence in a utopian setting. A slow breakdown of this reality ensues when the father brings in someone…
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Asyle, a reflection
Asyle was shown at the Arnolfini, on Saturday 13 March, as part of the Girls on Film festival. Four women’s lives are gently approached and glided over in this introspective and quiet movie. The story skips from character to character in a plot centred around an open terrace above a ‘love motel’ which rents rooms…
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NON-KO, a reflection
I have long given up on building expectations around Japanese movies but I was still surprised by Non-Ko. Opening scene. A woman sits at a bar drinking whiskey from a glass filled with an impressive amount of ice (think –berg). She downs the drink and asks for a refill. She’s been there a while and…
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Xizao (Shower), a reflection
The movie begins with a businessman taking an impersonal, mechanised shower with processes more akin to a car wash than a personal cleaning routine. The process looks very efficient in leaving a person squeaky clean and provides no interaction. Although the need for interaction may not be so pronounced in Western societies, in China, in…
Ephemeral digest 