The Wolfpack – Review Tom Bond August 4, 2015 Reviews The Wolfpack is a fascinating study of life lived on movies alone. They shape the Angulo family’s personalities, leading to some hilarious spot-on recreations, but the accompanying isolation breeds...
Self/less – Review Phil W. Bayles July 19, 2015 Reviews It speaks volumes about the sheer tedium of Tarsem Singh’s Self/less that its most annoying aspect is the errant punctuation in its title. Is the film supposed to be called “Self or less?” - Sounds like...
Ted 2 – Review Tom Bond July 8, 2015 Reviews Moving away from Ted’s tiring and prehistoric gender dynamic (mostly), Ted 2 introduces a more inspiring goal…freedom. Comparing Ted’s plight to slavery is of course ridiculous, and MacFarlane treads...
Terminator Genisys – Review Tom Bond July 2, 2015 Reviews Terminator Genisys throws the franchise’s classic characters and story beats together in what feels more like a Greatest Hits remix than a reboot. Normally that would infuriate, but Taylor’s direction...
What Happened, Miss Simone? – Review Phil W. Bayles June 26, 2015 Reviews Few can deny the awesome power of Nina Simone's iconic voice. Fewer still will be aware of the strength of her words. Director Liz Garbus paints a fascinating portrait of a woman who reflected her own time...
A Young Patriot – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 19, 2015 Reviews There are two things that every university student must do, says young idealist Zhao Changtong: get a job in the students’ union, and fall in love. It sounds like pretty standard practice for students...
Drone – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 19, 2015 Reviews The debate about drones is only in its infancy, but Drone proves that there’s plenty of discussion to be had. Interviews with former drone pilots in the US and human rights lawyers in Pakistan highlight...
The Russian Woodpecker – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 10, 2015 Reviews The first time we meet young Ukranian artist Fedor Alexandrovich, he’s producing a play called Dreams of a Ridiculous Man. It’s an apt description of Fedor himself. With his wild eyes and unkempt facial...
Orion: The Man Who Would Be King – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 10, 2015 Reviews Doc/Fest was made for films like Orion: The Man who would be King – stories so ridiculous and unbelievable that they must be true. The archival footage of singer and Elvis sound-alike Jimmy Ellis gyrating...
Generation Right – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 9, 2015 Reviews Given that, in the words of director Michelle Coomber, Britain "voted itself back into the 1980s" last month, Generation Right could hardly feel more timely. Coomber interviews academics, activists and...
Match Me! – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 9, 2015 Reviews Imagine Richard Curtis directed Catfish and you’ll have some idea of what Lia Jaspers’ Match Me! is all about. We follow three people as they try various methods of finding a partner. Johanna attends a...
Containment – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 9, 2015 Reviews One imagines Brad Bird would be very enamoured with Moss and Galison’s work – there are parallels to be drawn between the message of Tomorrowland and the tone of this documentary about the disposal of...
Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 9, 2015 Reviews If it’s true that the act of observing something changes the nature of the thing being observed, it’s equally true that it changes the observer. In Spectres of the Shoah, director Claude Lanzmann...
Good Girl – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 9, 2015 Reviews “A feel-good film about depression” isn’t the easiest of sales pitches, but it’s an apt description of Good Girl. It’s bleak subject material, not least in depicting Solveig’s treatment by...
A Sinner in Mecca – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 9, 2015 Reviews After exploring the gay Muslim community in A Jihad for Love, filmmaker Parvez Sharma turns the camera on himself as he clandestinely films his pilgrimage to Mecca. Sharma's journey shines a light on Saudi...