★★☆☆☆ Dir: Baz Luhrmann (2013) Baz Luhrmann‘s glitzy, superficial style could be compared to a cannon full of confetti, exploding squarely in one’s face. Crashing high shots which zoom through cities and dip through windows, painfully over edited conversations, boorish pop songs filling nearly every second of film, campy, wince inducing dance numbers inhabit most of his work; Lets just say, …
★★★★★ Dir: Tobias Lindholm (2013) Tobias Lindholm has already delivered one incredible piece of work this year, helping out Thomas Vinterberg in penning the rather excellent The Hunt. That slow burning film, taught with uncertainty and wonderfully handed by Vinterberg in the directors chair, is now neck and neck with Lindholm’s own brilliant exercise in tension with the equally intense A …
★★★★☆ Dir: Shane Black (2013) Jon Favreau takes a back seat as producer in the third and brilliantly enjoyable Iron Man film, letting Lethal Weapon and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang scribe and director Shane Black into the chair. It’s a move which pays off pushing the third film to the top of the pile with fantastic …
★★★★☆ Dir: Derek Cianfrance (2013) Derek Cianfrance‘s sprawling triptych of a film is certainly an ambitious follow-up to his heartbreaker par excellence Blue Valentine; This is a finely acted and beautifully shot morality tale which consumes two families over the course of more than fifteen years. Sagging slightly in the middle despite a fantastic performance from Bradley Cooper, the films bookending tales are when The Place …
★★★★★ Dir: Shane Carruth (2013) Nine years after the infuriating and brilliant Primer took home the big prize at Sundance, writer / director / producer / actor / composer / editor / cinematographer / weirdo Shane Carruth has found inspiration in one unlikely place and many recognisable ones Upstream Color, and you may have already read this before, …
★★★☆☆ (2012) Coming only 18 months after the bewildering, staggering amalgamation of his own thematic tropes, Terrence Malick could have made his only real cinematic failure with the rambling, reaching and near self parodying To The Wonder. If The Tree of Life attempted to unpick the grand questions of life, death and our own place in a vast universe, …
★☆☆☆☆ Dir: John Moore (2013) 1988′s Die Hard is a classic action film; Simple, fun, excessively violent, loud and confined. It rebranded the action hero as an everyday Joe (or John as it were) and it paved the way for 2 sequels which were adequate in almost every way. Renny Harlin bringing John McClane back to the screen … Continue reading »
★★★☆☆ Dir. Park Chan-Wook (2013) Park Chan-Wook‘s English language debut feature is filled with wonderfully tense moments, sublimely edited single sequences and sound design to make even the most strong stomached cinema goer go a big wobbly one but it’s seriousness becomes a crutch in the film’s final third when the Korean director tries to entertain … Continue reading »
★☆☆☆☆ Dir: Nicolás López (2013) Nicolás López, Eli Roth and Guillermo Amoedo‘s horribly misjudged disaster film is nothing short of jaw-dropping in its offensive swaggering idiocy. No doubt a strange excuse for Roth (who stars here as “The Gringo”) and his buddies to go on an extended trip around Chile, Aftershock takes its time too. It’s lengthy “character … Continue reading »
Mondo are debuting a series of posters from one of the most influential and important America directors this week curated by Aaron Horkey. Hard Eight, Magnolia, Boogie Nights, Punch Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood can be bought on their website later this week… Continue reading »
Stunning collection of work inspired by the films of Godard by the talented Juan Villanueva. Continue reading »
★☆☆☆☆ Dir. Roman Coppola (2013) Roman Coppola‘s atrocious return to the directors chair sees him wasting an opportunity backed by his recent sublime Oscar recognised writing work with Wes Anderson and a cast pilfered from the American style master’s phonebook… and Charlie Sheen. The tiger blood drinking, drug taking, winning Adonis plays a thinly veiled version of his broken … Continue reading »
A very grizzly poster indeed for Franck Khalfoun’s version of William Lustieg’s 1980 Argento influenced cult slasher by Jeff Proctor. You can more of his stunning work here… Continue reading »
