Solo: A Star Wars Story – Cannes 2018 Review Tom Bond May 16, 2018 Reviews Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? Film franchises prompt that question on a daily basis, with every semi-successful character or creation plundered for as many sequels and spin-offs as audiences...
Pope Francis: A Man of His Word – Cannes 2018 Review Tom Bond May 15, 2018 Reviews You may expect a film about the current Pope to be of interest only to religious viewers, but veteran director Wim Wenders tries his hardest to generate a broader audience for his gentle documentary. This is a...
Shoplifters – Cannes 2018 Review Tom Bond May 15, 2018 Reviews Hirokazu Kore-eda is on familiar ground with Shoplifters, the story of an unconventional family unit on the fringes of society who beg, steal and borrow to get by. It’s the most fun Kore-eda has been in...
BlacKkKlansman – Cannes 2018 Review Tom Bond May 15, 2018 Reviews In 2012, when Obama was president and racism in America seemed to be fading, Django Unchained featured a notorious scene with the Ku Klux Klan. Squabbling about eyeholes and spare bags, the white supremacist...
Happy as Lazzaro – Cannes 2018 Review Tom Bond May 14, 2018 Reviews Alice Rohrwacher’s gentle domestic comedy, Happy as Lazzaro, is a hard film to define. It’s full of grim social realism, light conversational comedy, and surreal jumps in time that warp reality to make...
Fahrenheit 451 – Cannes 2018 Review Tom Bond May 14, 2018 Reviews Ray Bradbury’s iconoclastic 1953 novel has not been this relevant for a long time. Fahrenheit 451 was written as a defence of books and intellectualism against the growth of TV and other mindless...
Girls of the Sun – Cannes 2018 Review Tom Bond May 14, 2018 Reviews The war on terror has never really ended since the touch paper was lit on 9/11. Troops landed, and left, enemies were vanquished, and changed, domestic threats grew, and faded. After all this time, it’s easy...
Mandy – Cannes 2018 Review Tom Bond May 13, 2018 Reviews When Nic Cage’s performance is the most normal thing about a film, you know you’re dealing with something truly extraordinary. The first thing you notice about Mandy is its look. It’s like...
Girl – Cannes 2018 Review Tom Bond May 12, 2018 Reviews “Enjoy puberty while it lasts.” This well-meaning advice from the titular girl’s father (Arieh Worthalter) is a cruel joke to most teenagers, let alone trans teens. Lara is a 16-year-old trans girl,...
Dragon’s Defense – Cannes 2017 Review Tom Bond May 28, 2017 Reviews Dragon’s Defense is a film about nothing. And not in the sense that Seinfeld is a TV show about "nothing", but is really about everything. There’s no implied rule-breaking or casual genius in this...
24 Frames – Cannes 2017 Review Tom Bond May 28, 2017 Reviews The late Abbas Kiarostami was a true visionary, responsible for some of the most powerful and thought-provoking cinema of the last four decades. He continues to pursue new ways of expressing himself in 24...
Dopo La Guerra – Cannes 2017 Review Tom Bond May 23, 2017 Reviews Dopo La Guerra tells the half-true story of a group of Italian far-left political terrorists, whose amnesty to live in France was rescinded in 2002. Annarita Zambrano’s tense film combines thriller and...
Jeune Femme – Cannes 2017 Review Tom Bond May 23, 2017 Reviews Roaring down the trail blazed by the likes of Lena Dunham’s Girls, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag and Gillian Robespierre’s Obvious Child, Jeune Femme is the most memorable and entertaining film of the...
Out – Cannes 2017 Review Tom Bond May 23, 2017 Reviews Gyorgy Kristóf’s Out proves that unemployment and fear of foreign workers aren’t limited to the more affluent nations of Europe in this sweet story about a factory worker struggling to get by. Ágoston...
Radiance – Cannes 2017 Review Tom Bond May 23, 2017 Reviews If there’s one thing a film festival always proves, it’s that there are countless ways to see the world: fast, slow; violent, peaceful; restrained, exaggerated; joyous and heartbreaking. Naomi Kawase’s...