Archive for the ‘Film Reviews’ Category

Great Expectations (2012)

Great Expectations (2012)
Great Expectations is the “classic novel” par excellence: a book everyone wants to have read. I was compelled to read it in school, but bunked out early on: I recall a youngster called Pip being shaken down in a graveyard roust by grizzled villain, but the text thereafter is a blur. I should...
November 26th, 2012 | Feature, Film Reviews | Read More

A Simple Life (2011)

A Simple Life (2011)
Unsentimental but still hugely affecting, A Simple Life is a beautifully observed film from prolific Hong Kong director Ann Hui. It’s uncomplicated study of the virtues of modesty and self-sacrifice is a truly humbling watch. For her whole adult life Ah Tao (Deannie Yip) has spent her life in servitude...
November 23rd, 2012 | Film Reviews | Read More

This Must Be the Place (2011)

This Must Be the Place (2011)
Avenging the father This Must Be the Place is the first film made outside Italy by the director Paolo Sorrentino, whose work is droll and stylized. His films tend to unroll in a series of vividly realized set pieces, and this one is brightly colored and otherwise visually stunning, though the content...
November 21st, 2012 | Film Reviews | Read More

Quartet (2012)

Quartet (2012)
This year the Cornwall Film Festival closed with Dustin Hoffman’s enjoyable comedy drama Quartet and what a lovely way to end. The film features a plethora of British acting gems including Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Tom Courtenay and the hilarious Billy Connolly and it is these wonderful actors...
November 21st, 2012 | Film Reviews | Read More

God Bless America (2011)

God Bless America (2011)
Frank (Joel Murray) lives on his own, fed up with the deterioration of society due to mind numbing television programmes and idiotic presenters, his life hits rock bottom when he is fired from his mundane office job and told by his doctor that he has a brain tumour. He has nothing left to lose, his [...]
November 21st, 2012 | Film Reviews | Read More

Kauwboy (2012)

Kauwboy (2012)
Kauwboy will represent the Netherlands in the competition for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2013 Academy Awards and there is not a more deserving film for this accolade. The title is literally translated as jackdaw boy and is about Jojo, a ten year old boy who is struggling to deal with his mother’s...
November 21st, 2012 | Feature, Film Reviews | Read More

Elena (2011)

Elena (2011)
Elena (Nadezhda Markina) is middle aged and living with her wealthy husband, Vladimir (Andrey Smirnov) in his luxury apartment in Moscow. The couple sleep in separate rooms and we see in detail their repetitive daily routine. But Vladimir’s health is failing him and after a heart attack he plans to...
November 21st, 2012 | Film Reviews | Read More

Gambit (2012)

Gambit (2012)
I was really unsure of just how to react when I first saw the trailer for Gambit. A couple of good men (Colin Firth and Alan Rickman) in main roles meant that I wanted to enjoy it but the trailer made the movie seem predictable, unfunny and desperate to draw an audience who would see [...]
November 21st, 2012 | Feature, Film Reviews | Read More

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2
Twist, zap, zoom! The last film of the Twilight series is here and soon can be forgotten, at least by those who were never that interested. But it may not actually be that easy. After all, vampires live forever. There’s just been a new Spider-Man series started up. Stephanie Meyer has already...
November 21st, 2012 | Film Reviews | Read More

Yossi (2012)

Yossi (2012)
Yossi (Ohad Knoller) is a thirty something doctor in Tel Aviv who hides the fact he is gay from all around him. He is a workaholic and is a very melancholic character. When a middle-aged woman walks into the hospital he insists on treating her, even though he appears not to know her, and the [...]
November 20th, 2012 | Film Reviews | Read More
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