During the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), cinema was a meaningful tool for propaganda and Soviet cultural identity development. As the USSR had a massive territorial length, each region would have a unique voice in its approach regarding filmmaking. Therefore, plenty of the productions from the Soviet period are …
The grand Austrian director Michael Haneke famously stated, to paraphrase, that a film is 24 lies per second in service of the attempt to find the truth. In this sense, cinema is a mere representation of the reality. This conceptualization allows multiple directors to experiment with the understanding of the …
The sophomore effort in the Napo River (Toroboro) in Manolo Sarmiento’s diptych about the local communities is La Consulta Popular, or The People’s Referendum. He focuses on the political aspect of the situation. With this film, he shifts his lenses to the isolated tribes, who decided to continue far from …
When it comes to the Indian film industry, there are only a few actors who don’t need to do extravagant promotional events to sell tickets. One such actor is Suriya, and fans go berserk whenever he announces his next movie. However, some of his previous films haven’t turned out to …
Italian director Yuri Ancarani declares in his Venice Film Festival statement that “Atlantide is a film that began without a screenplay.” It could very well be said that it still hasn’t got one. There are, perhaps, 15 lines of dialogue in Ancarani’s ridiculous and amateurish film about Daniele, (Daniele Barison) …
In 2016, the press revealed an espionage scheme for the asbestos industry. A hired person would infiltrate the anti-asbestos organizations and leak their plans to the hirers. That man is Robert Moore, a former TV producer of popular prank shows like Da Ali G Show and Candid Camera. After a …
Edgar Wright, acclaimed cult director of Baby Driver and Hot Fuzz fame, directs Last Night In Soho with a breezy smoothness, but this vibrant, pulpy horror is disappointingly toothless. In contemporary Cornwall, naive and fresh faced 18 year old Eloise ‘Ellie’ Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) is standing in her room. Fashion …
The trouble with writers is that our work is not very cinematic. Watching someone type down their thoughts is only marginally more interesting than watching someone read a book. So it helps if the writer is easy to watch, whether that’s by being good-looking or from providing excellent archival footage …
Thunderbolts* is the latest chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), directed by Jake Schreier (Paper Towns) with a screenplay by Eric Pearson (Black Widow) and Joanna Calo (The Bear). At a time when the MCU feels overwhelmed by a seemingly endless ocean of characters, storylines, variants, and multiversal concepts, …
Since the first presentation in Paris in 1896, moving pictures have been compiled to create kinetic movement and impress audiences. The fascination of the frames moving created a collective memory in society. Technically, the media’s pushing became the obsession of cinematographers, who aimed to point their cameras to the perfect …
This loving but very sad movie obeys a stereotype of Spanish cinema by handling a complex issue – in this case, domestic violence – through the eyes of a very small girl. The Spirit of the Beehive handled the Spanish civil war this way, as Summer 1993 handled AIDS and …
Bullet Train Explosion marks Japan’s return to one of cinema’s most intense rail thrillers, nearly fifty years after the release of Junya Sato’s classic The Bullet Train. This legacy sequel is directed by Shinji Higuchi (Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman) and penned by Kazuhiro Nakagawa and Norichika Ōba. While the concept …
Tolga Karaçelik is a name well known to international audiences and soon to be United States audiences as well. Psycho Killer: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer is a black comedy and the writer/director’s fouth film. It’s his latest after the Sundance-lauded …
Gareth Evans isn’t a filmmaker with an extensive portfolio, but cult classics The Raid and The Raid 2 were enough to cement his legacy in action cinema. Any avid fan of the genre recognizes these movies as a major influence – not just for the intensity of their fight set …
Rebecca Lenkiewicz will always be in the British history books as the first living female writer to have a play produced by The National Theatre. Her Naked Skin, staged in 2008, was about the violence involved as British women fought for the right to vote; my main memory is of …
Silver Star, a determinedly quirky little movie, is a throwback to the indie cinema of the nineties in the best way. It stands and falls entirely on the actions of two unpredictable people, thrown together through a combination of foolishness and bad decisions, and who stick together through a combination …
This year’s Slamdance Festival featured a lot of hard-hitting films. However, Yun Xie’s Under the Burning Sun outclassed every other movie in the festival by talking about a subject that is considered taboo in many communities. Set in a dystopian world where abortion is outlawed, Mowanza (played by Stephanie Pardi) finds herself …
Ryan Coogler knew just what audiences were missing and delivered a euphoric cinematic experience as he has answered our prayer for original filmmaking with the spectacular whirlwind known as Sinners. Taking us on a dance with one or more devils and a journey through 1930s Southern US history with a …
Zeitgeisty trends combine in Peacock: how it mocks the vapid wealthy with lives so comfortable they must manufacture problems for themselves is clearly inspired by the work of Ruben Östlund. The problem is that social satire works best with a strong opinion about the behaviour being mocked. Are you teasing …
When asked to define the word eephus, many may just give up. The word sounds almost made-up if you do not come from the world of baseball. If you are a fan of the great American pastime, however, an eephus is a known quantity. It is the name for a …