Why Suspiria Still Has The Perfect Horror Opening Sequence Joseph Bullock December 28, 2020 Analysis, Close-Up, Features Watch the opening sequence of Suspiria here: part 1 & part 2 A masterpiece of the genre, and certainly the most famous Italian example, Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977) remains a uniquely haunting...
How Tangled’s Flynn Rider Perfected the Disney Prince Alex Goldstein November 19, 2020 Close-Up, Features, Nostalgia, One Off Tangled has always had a bit of a mixed reputation. Although cinema-going audiences treated it fairly kindly, it struggled to make back its mammoth budget. Critics shrugged at it - complaining it was a little...
Ammonite, Nomadland and Female Freedom Alex Goldstein November 9, 2020 Analysis, Close-Up, Features So many women’s stories are about freedom: choosing it, fearing it, paying for it. At the London Film Festival this year, two of the most talked about features - Nomadland and Ammonite - had the same...
Aaron Sorkin’s Demons and Better Angels Anna McKibbin October 10, 2020 Close-Up, Features, Opinion Eight years ago, Kevin Porter posted a video entitled “Sorkinisms – A Supercut”. Over 1.5 million people have watched this video which features different Aaron Sorkin-penned characters uttering the same...
How Fritz Lang Broke Hollywood Joseph Bullock October 5, 2020 Analysis, Close-Up, Features Fritz Lang created some of the most indelible images in cinema. Most come from his German films: the rotund spacecraft from Woman in the Moon (1929), Peter Lorre’s panicking child-killer branded with a...
Inception and the Time of Capitalism Anahit Behrooz July 14, 2020 Analysis, Close-Up, Features 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...
The Changing Face of Pedro Almodóvar’s Autofiction Joseph Bullock July 9, 2020 Analysis, Close-Up, Features 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...
The Apartment and How to Escape Toxic Masculinity Katy Moon June 25, 2020 Analysis, Close-Up, Features 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...
The Transformative Legacy of Psycho Rob Salusbury June 9, 2020 Analysis, Close-Up, Features 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...
Lenny Abrahamson And The Longing For The Unreachable Rafaela Sales Ross May 26, 2020 Analysis, Close-Up, Features 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...
Céline Sciamma, Water Lilies, and the Complications of Youthful Desire Nick Davie May 11, 2020 Analysis, Close-Up, Features Céline Sciamma is having a moment. Following the 2019 festival debut and this year's cinematic release ofPortrait of a Lady on Fire, she is currently the subject of Mubi UK's 'Focus on' retrospective. This...
What Should We Make of The Farewell’s Ending? Calum Baker October 3, 2019 Analysis, Close-Up, Features, One Off The Farewell, written and directed by Lulu Wang, is fast being slotted into one of film culture’s more interesting reductive categories: the heartfelt indie that makes everyone cry. The very premise primes...
Getting Too Old For This Shit? – The Rise of the Geri-Action Star Phil W. Bayles September 18, 2019 Analysis, Close-Up, Features 1 Comment Poor Roger Murtagh wouldn't last long in Hollywood today. Played by Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon movies, the cop was complaining about getting on in years at the tender age of 50 - which makes him a...
Feminism vs Capitalism in Support the Girls Tom Bond June 27, 2019 Analysis, Close-Up, Features Andrew Bujalski’s Support the Girls is undoubtedly a feminist film, despite being set in a Hooters-esque sports bar where the staff flirt for tips in low-cut tops. Its greatness lies in how it pits its cast...
John Wick vs. The World: The Action Film’s Evolution Chris Edwards May 17, 2019 Analysis, Close-Up, Features Action movies aren't what they used to be. With the incredible advancement of CGI allowing for ever-increasing financial success, modern action has become all about sequels, remakes and adaptations. This...