Author Rachel Brook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl8M6QGnVEo Benigni is a beguiling and paradoxical fantasy of the mundane which, despite early foreshadowing, contains plenty of shock value. Skilful animation endows...

Now that a few years have passed since the Twilight phenomenon was at its peak, perhaps it’s possible to give the film adaptations a second chance, with the benefit of distanced objectivity. At least...

Take one pint-sized actress and mix in hunky male (piercing blue eyes optional). Add geographic distance/serious illness/drastically opposed lifestyles, or all three. Scatter clichés generously. Take care not...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY After familiar establishing shots, unintelligible dialogue plunges viewers into disorientation. If cinema is about innovative communication of narrative...

Characterised by outlandish comedy and a zany colour palette, Moomins on the Riviera is a lovingly hand-drawn tribute to Tove Jansson’s creations. As with early morning children’s television, an exuberant...

Like an unassuming and subtler Birdman, Clouds of Sils Maria takes advantage of its actor protagonist Maria (Binoche) in order to probe a potential overlap between fiction and reality. A dawdling...

New Girlfriend is technically striking, often conveying narrative visually in brave compositions, and Pascal Marti’s cinematography is as fluid as the characters’ identities. Ozon’s latest is riddled...

With an omniscient voiceover, supernatural premise and bland romance, The Age of Adaline could be a mash-up of Pushing Daisies and a Nicholas Sparks novel. After a whistle-stop tour of 20th century US...

https://vimeo.com/15759511 The anonymous office setting of The Black Hole, along with the all-to-recognisable experiences of tedium and frustration, anticipates the equally surreal world of Richard...

Vinterberg’s adaptation easily ticks the required boxes of a successful period drama. The sets are ready to be stepped onto, and there’s artistry and homeliness to the costuming. Moreover, Vinterberg...

This May, Carey Mulligan once again returns to the genre that launched her into acting: the period drama. Having brought some of Jane Austen’s most vivid characters to life, Mulligan will now try her hand at...

Virtually plotless, Lost River is a lurid technicolour nightmare featuring a senseless mishmash of shot types, a warped Miss Havisham and a caricaturish Matt Smith. There’s no subtlety here; the sparse...

While We’re Young is a natural progression from Baumbach’s Frances Ha, yet it breaks new ground by using older protagonists to provide a fresh perspective on twentysomething New Yorkers. Meanwhile, it...

Celebrated Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell has recorded twenty two albums in a career spanning more than forty years and ranging across the genres of folk, jazz, and pop. She’s even been named...

Still Alice is increasingly immersive, with dynamic camerawork and layered soundscapes replicating Alice’s perceptions for the audience, and conveying her alarmingly rapid decline. In comparison,...