Silent Land – TIFF 2021 Review Lydia Rostant September 11, 2021 Reviews In the sun-soaked lethargy of coastal Italy, a couple find themselves grappling with life, death, and purpose. As a concept, it’s hardly new territory – auteurs of luxurious turmoil Luca Guadagnino and...
Portrait of Kaye: Ben Reed on the Moral Quandaries of the Documentary Form Lydia Rostant June 9, 2021 Features, Independent, Interview There is a common misconception in filmmaking which presumes the director to have total and divine confidence in both their subject matter, and the various processes by which they tell the story. Ben Reed’s...
The Quiet Power of Isla Badenoch’s The Elvermen At Sheffield DocFest Lydia Rostant June 6, 2021 Features, Independent, Interview In Isla Badenoch’s The Elvermen, fish are the size of men and men are of mythical proportions. The film (which premiered on June 5, 2021 at Sheffield DocFest), was shot in a narrow window of time, between...
Slaxx – Review Alysha Prasad March 16, 2021 Reviews “Small price to pay for an awesome ass,” are the famous last words in this film. From writer-director Elza Kephart comes Shudder’s Slaxx, a campy horror comedy about a possessed pair of jeans that come...
Child’s Play – Review Jack King June 21, 2019 Reviews "A white guy murdered in the middle of a watermelon patch. Poetic." This isn't a line from Jordan Peele's latest horror-infused racial satire Us, nor does it come from the atrocious reboot of Shaft. This is a...
Danny – Sheffield Doc/Fest 2019 Review Jack King June 13, 2019 Reviews What is one spurred to do when facing their own mortality? Co-directors Aaron Zeghers & Lewis Bennett evoke this question throughout Danny: a flawed, if immensely personal, 50-minute documentary compiled...
Don’t Be a Dick About It – Sheffield Doc/Fest 2019 Review Jack King June 10, 2019 Reviews A documentary doesn't always have to be didactic in order to teach. As is true for real life, it's often through passive observation that we learn much not only about the subject at hand, but also of...
High Life – Review Chris Edwards May 10, 2019 Reviews Travelling at 99% of the speed of light, Clare Denis’s latest feature High Life sees Robert Pattinson’s Monte attempt to raise a baby daughter in deep space. Focusing on three distinct periods in Monte’s...
Alita: Battle Angel – Review Kambole Campbell February 6, 2019 Reviews This review was originally published on 01/02/2018. There’s a lot going on in Alita: Battle Angel, with class warfare, a mysterious past, a conspiracy plot, a teen romance, a detour into a Speed...
Alita: Battle Angel – Review Kambole Campbell February 1, 2019 Reviews There’s a lot going on in Alita: Battle Angel, with class warfare, a mysterious past, a conspiracy plot, a teen romance, a detour into a Speed Racer-esque take on roller derby called "Motorball", glimpses...
Ideal Home – Review Sarah J July 8, 2018 Reviews Ideal Home follows Paul (Paul Rudd) and Erasmus (Steve Coogan). Paul produces Erasmus’ cooking show, featuring cultural appropriation and oblivious decadence, highlighting the couple’s separation from the...
Set It Up – Review Sarah J June 18, 2018 Reviews Set It Up is a fun, refreshing film in a time where romcoms that enter our cultural consciousness are either iconoclastic Hollywood blockbusters (from Bridesmaids to Pretty Woman) or cringeworthy Netflix...
The Commuter – Review Kambole Campbell January 21, 2018 Reviews Of all the thriller directors that Liam Neeson has worked with in his latter day reinvention as an action movie star, Jaume Collet-Serra probably knows best how to tap into Neeson’s presence. In The...
The Silent Storm – Review Danielle Davenport May 22, 2016 Reviews McFarlane’s feature debut overflows with expansive and explosive emotions. An intense picture that does not coddle, The Silent Storm embraces its atmospheric identity, fervent soundtrack and otherworldly...
The Daughter – Review Nick Evan-Cook May 21, 2016 Reviews With powerful performances, gorgeous cinematography and a score to make you weep, The Daughter is independent drama at its finest. Picking a highlight from the uniformly excellent cast is no mean feat,...