ORWAV’s Top 20 Films of 2021: #5 – The Power of the Dog Tom Bond December 31, 2021 Analysis, Features, Top 10 A darkened interior frames a lone man striding across a dusty plain. It’s one of the most well-worn images in cinema, and it provides a powerful visual shorthand for the themes of any Western: domesticity vs...
The Power of the Dog – Review Tom Bond November 18, 2021 Reviews This film was previously reviewed in September 2021 as part of our Venice Film Festival coverage. Jane Campion’s latest film, an adaptation of Thomas Savage’s The Power of the Dog, is a masterful...
The Card Counter – Review Tom Bond November 5, 2021 Reviews This film was previously reviewed in September 2021 as part of our coverage for Venice Film Festival. The Card Counter marks a highly anticipated return for Paul Schrader, after his career-best First...
By the Book: The Sisters Brothers Rory Steabler April 1, 2019 Analysis, By The Book, Features Patrick deWitt’s 2011 novel The Sisters Brothers is very funny. Jacques Audiard’s new film adaptation of that novel is significantly less funny. Despite (or really, because of) this, the film is a great...
Steve McQueen’s Desperate Men: Masculinity Under Pressure Rhys Handley November 6, 2018 Analysis, Features, Spotlight In Widows, director Steve McQueen is mining relatively fresh territory for himself in the film's female-rooted narrative. Though he has never disregarded women’s experiences in his work, they have not –...
Short of the Week – MANOMAN Sinead McCausland August 21, 2017 Features, Independent, Short of the Week https://vimeo.com/173524321 MANOMAN is a short film that viewers should watch more than once in order to grasp its smart, cinematic spectacle. Due to the film's surrealist humour, the viewer can easily...
Moonlight And The Performativity Of Masculinity Stephanie Watts February 17, 2017 Analysis, Close-Up, Features Barry Jenkins' Moonlight explores the life of Chiron - a black gay man in a rough Miami neighbourhood - across three periods in his life. He's taken in by a well-meaning couple (played by Mahershala Ali and...
Martin Scorsese and the Fragility Of Masculinity Thom Denson December 27, 2016 Analysis, Close-Up, Features Men are weak-minded, egocentric and, for the most part, doomed to fail. For the past four decades of his career, Martin Scorsese has mined his way through the male psyche, warts and all. To some, he may be...
Chevalier – Review Cathy Brennan July 23, 2016 Reviews So much of the nasty stuff in the news lately can be laid at the feet of toxic masculinity. From the collective hissy-fit of Ghostbros to a couple of domestic abusers in Orlando and Nice, masculine culture...
Top 20 Films of 2015: 2. Mad Max: Fury Road Tom Bond December 30, 2015 Analysis, Features, Top 10 Mad Max: Fury Road is undoubtedly one of the best action blockbusters of 2015. It’s also one of the most progressive, subversive and openly political films to reach such a mass audience in recent memory. It...
