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La La Land – Review

Damien Chazelle's third feature, La La Land, confirms two trends in the director's still relatively young career. Firstly, an inclination towards jazz. Secondly, a tendency to make thrilling, moving...
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Bitter Money – Venice 2016 Review

In China over 300,000 people work in the textile industry. With Bitter Money Wang Bing documents the grinding lives that these people have to endure, offering a sympathetic insight into their world. In...
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Malaria – Venice 2016 Review

By framing its story through recovered mobile phone footage discovered by unseen investigators, Malaria immediately hooks in its audience. Set mainly in Tehran, director Parviz Shahbazi utilises the mobile...
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Never Ever – Venice 2016 Review

In the wake of The Babadook new ghost stories should be welcomed with open arms. However, Never Ever squanders its potential by being utterly tedious. The first half of Never Ever actually intrigues as...
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The Bad Batch – Venice 2016 Review

Ana Lily Amirpour falls victim to the sophomore slump with The Bad Batch. Like her strong debut, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, she creates a strange world for her characters to inhabit. However, a languid...
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Une Vie – Venice 2016 Review

Adapting the eponymous novel by Guy de Maupassant, Une Vie is a textured film that may just be too dour for its own good. Charting Jeanne’s (Judith Chelma) descent from landowners’ daughter to a...
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The Journey – Venice 2016 Review

From the very first frame, it’s clear that The Journey is more of an ITV drama than a film. Cheap in its look and firmly middlebrow, there’s nothing of note to recommend it. Timothy Spall transforms...
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Gukôroku – Venice 2016 Review

Gukôroku is the most frustrating kind of film, because so many of its elements work only to be let down by a story that does not warrant this low level of filmmaking. Gukôroku entices the audience with...
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Paradise – Venice 2016 Review

Andrei Konchalovsky offers a cross-section of Europe under Nazi rule through his three main characters: French-Nazi collaborator Jules (Phillippe Duqesne), Russian Resistance member Olga (Julia Vysotskaya),...
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Voyage of Time – Venice 2016 Review

30 years in the making makes a decent marketing line for Terrence Malick’s latest film Voyage of Time. With such a line and a pedigree name attached, it can’t help but underwhelm even if it does indeed...