Few film makers are as incredible as the mighty Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer. Like so many people of my generation, I was first aware of him in the early 90s, when Channel 4 screened his singular adaptation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, abbreviated to simply Alice Alice, created in 1988, was a revelation. Beautiful, disturbingContinue reading “Disney’s Dream Debased: Alice”
Category Archives: Film
My First All Emoji Review: Dig! (2004)
❤️🎥📽️☢️🎧🎤🎹🎙️🎻🎺⭐🤩📀🤑💲💲💲 🎸🎵🎼➕🎨🚩🚩🚩🚩💊💊💊💊💊💊💊💊💊💊💉💉💉💉💉😠😠😠😡😡😡😡😡😒😒🤬🤬🔥🔥🔥🔥💥💥💥💥🧔👦 ⭐⭐⭐🥃🥃🥃🥃🍾🔪🌎🎉🎉⭐⭐⭐👅🗣️🗣️💪💪🤥😵😬🤒🤒🤒🤒😜😜😜💊💊💊💉💉💉 🎼🎼🎼🎵🎵🤒😵😜🚛🚛😠📀📀🍸🤑🤑🤑🤑😥😥😠🤔🤔😍🤩🤩🤩🙂🙂⭐⭐⭐🎹🎧🎤🎸 🎻🎬🎸🎸🎺🎷🎸❤️❤️❤️💯🎉👋👋👋
The Anti- Amelie: He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
This classic French film is the antithesis of trite rom-coms. Amelie it ain’t. Angelique (Audrey Tautou) is a fine arts student in love with Loic (Samuel Le Bihan) a much older cardiologist. Angelique is absolutely smitten, and desperately wants him to leave his pregnant wife. She’s an intially charming young woman, popular and well- liked,Continue reading “The Anti- Amelie: He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not”
Bjork: MTV Unplugged/ MTV Live
Bjork Unplugged? Sounds like an oxymoron, and kinda is. This film compilation of MTV appearances, released in 2002, is one for completists only. Capturing the divine Ms Gudmunsdottir in 1994 at the height of her Debut success, both the performance and sound are too subdued to really impact. She tentatively prowls around the stage inContinue reading “Bjork: MTV Unplugged/ MTV Live”
Frankenweenie(1984)
In many ways, the original short film version of Frankenweenie is a sharp satire on horror cinema and its tropes: after all, Shelley Duvall plays the Mom, which foreshadows the macabre undertow (isn’t she the archetypal horror film Mom as resilient Wendy Torrance in The Shining?) Written by Lenny Ripps and directed by a youngContinue reading “Frankenweenie(1984)”
Why Midnight Cowboy Remains Relevant
It may be nigh-on impossible to watch any Dustin Hoffman these days without hearing Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon parodying his nasal New York accent, but I watched John Schlesinger’s classic Midnight Cowboy the other night and it still remains an astute metaphor for the mess America is in, now as then. Joe Buck (JonContinue reading “Why Midnight Cowboy Remains Relevant”
Lost In Music: Gazelle Twin &NYX- Deep England
Halloween weekend is here, the thin veil between the dead and the living. Come stroke the red velvet interior of your worst nightmares. A hundred snakes constrict, a hundred shark mouths consume. There’s an infinite karaoke held by Nigel Farage. Directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, the wonderful creative duo behind the stunning Nick CaveContinue reading “Lost In Music: Gazelle Twin &NYX- Deep England”
Film Review: Here To Be Heard (2017)
There was no one quite like The Slits, and there never will be again. It’s eleven years since lead singer and force of nature Ari Up passed away from cancer at just 48 William E Badgley’s documentary charts the first all-female punk band and their formation in 1976, featuring interviews with Kate Korris, the originalContinue reading “Film Review: Here To Be Heard (2017)”
Overlooked Classics: Cutie and the Boxer
Why don’t more people know about Zachary Heinzerling’s remarkable, delicately moving documentary film from 2013? Cutie (Noriko ) met The Boxer (Ushio Shinohara) when he was forty one and she was just nineteen Shinohara was already an established presence in the New York avant-garde art scene of the sixties, with his action paintings, where heContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Cutie and the Boxer”
Malaide
Throaty Voiceover: From the producers of Overwrought French Drama, and the director of Fraught French Sequel, comes a clichéd new French film, much like every other clichéd mainstream French romance. Starring Marion Cotillard as troubled but sexy Emilie, and two other men you’ve never heard of, Yves Homme and Jean-Pierre Bof, comes… Malaide. Marion CotillardContinue reading “Malaide”
Hit The North 