Features

There are messy films that have aimed at greatness. Films whose evident care, visionary goal, and meticulous craftsmanship are apparent through the shipwreck of ambition. There are others that are deliberately...

It may feel like a lifetime ago now but it was only back in February when Jane Fonda opened that golden envelope and sent the film world into rapture. The cinematic sensation of 2019, Parasite became the...

Atonement was the film that made me fall in love with cinema. There had been films before and innumerable films since, but nothing has ever approached that heart-stopping, locking-eyes-across-a-crowded-room...

The Holocaust is, without a doubt, the toughest topic to discuss in modern history. The mass murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime during World War Two was a defining moment in the history of mankind:...

Once upon a time, so my head canon goes, a drunk philosophy fresher told Christopher Nolan that time is a construct and Nolan has never looked back. The majority of his films are characterised by their focus...

We have always seen glimpses of Pedro Almodóvar in his films. Most notably in Law of Desire (1987) and Bad Education (2004), he has used stories of filmmakers in a self-reflective way to construct deeply...

2020 has been a year to forget for many reasons. But today we’re here to focus on the positives. Even with only three months of cinema-going under our belts, the amount of incredible movie moments is as high...

In a conversation between Fran Kubelik and C.C. Baxter, the two very broken people at the centre of Billy Wilder’s classic comedy drama The Apartment, Fran (Shirley MacClaine) sums up the dichotomy of the...

Chicken Run's importance in the field of feature film animation can hardly be overstated. Twenty years ago this week it became the first of Bristol animation studio Aardman’s feature films, proving the...

If films are to be believed, then it appears that most of us have basically gone celibate these days. Take a look at the BBFC’s classifications for the last few years and you’ll find a swift decline in the...

The opening lyrics of Janet Jackson’s ‘Control’ are the first words we hear in Lorene Scafaria's 2019 crime caper Hustlers. “This is a story about control,” Jackson declares as the camera rests on...

It’s no coincidence that Tenet will likely be the film leading the charge back into cinemas this summer. Its director, Christopher Nolan, is a staunch defender of the cinematic experience, and perhaps the...

Has there ever been a film that so greatly influenced and changed the course of a single genre as Psycho? With one swish of a shower curtain and a chorus of shrieking violins, Alfred Hitchcock’s bold and...

Towards the end of Lenny Abrahamson’s Frank (2014), Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) glances at Frank Sidebottom’s band one last time before turning his back for good. They represented his feverish dream of...

There is a common narrative surrounding Orson Welles that he was too ambitious for the studio system of his day; the final edits of his movies were rarely under his control after his first film, and his...