In Review

In Review: To The Wonder

by Martyn Conterio 4 March 2013

Negative criticism aimed at Terrence Malick’s sixth feature, To The Wonder, settles on a charge of self-parody and the peculiar notion the director has lost the function to express his poetic and philosophical ideas in a coherent, accessible fashion. Have virtues and qualities grown stale? Poppycock!

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In Review: Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

by Helen Dines 25 February 2013

Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton star as the eponymous brother and sister duo in this frankly abysmal take on the Brothers Grimm fairytale written and directed by Tommy Wirkola.

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In Review: Mama

by Mark Searby 22 February 2013

Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Annabel (Jessica Chastain) are forced into the challenge of raising a pair of orphaned nieces left alone in a forest for 5 years after Lucas’s brother, Jeffrey, committed suicide in mysterious circumstances. The two girls, Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lilly (Isabelle Nelisse), have been out there so long, they turned feral. [...]

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In Review: TranSylvania on DVD

by Neil Mitchell 20 February 2013

While I have long since been aware of the career of Tony Gatlif actually watching one of his films had previously eluded me. The French-Algerian polymath of Romani descent, who counts directing, composing, acting, producing and screenwriting as strings on his bow, has been making films for close to forty years. Revolving around Romany culture [...]

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In Review: Valley Of Song on DVD

by Mark Searby 19 February 2013

Having spent five years away in London, Geraint Llewellyn (Clifford Evans) returns to the quaint corner of Wales where he grew up to fulfil a vacant position as local choirmaster. However after choosing the ‘wrong’ piece of music to perform, he inadvertently causes fierce rivalries to develop between families in the village. Whilst boasting the [...]

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In Review: The Last Days Of Dolwyn on DVD

by Mark Searby 18 February 2013

The idyllic North Wales village of Dolwyn is a peaceful and picturesque slice of valley life to all who live and visit there. Turmoil soon develops when a ruthless water company, lead by ex-Dolwynian Gareth (Richard Burton), want to build a reservoir and the only way they can do that is by flooding the place. [...]

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In Review: A Good Day To Die Hard

by Mark Searby 18 February 2013

Legendary cop, John McClane, is back with a fifth instalment of Die Hard and it comes to UK shores with a limp 12A certificate, presumably to make it more audience-friendly. Taken 2, the recent Liam Neeson actioner, also dumbed down the violence of its predecessor for bigger box-office receipts. This is in stark contrast to [...]

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In Review: Beasts Of The Southern Wild on Blu-ray

by Edward Frost 15 February 2013

Benh Zeitlin’s blistering and dizzying original feature debut Beasts of the Southern Wild is a most fascinating mix of low-budget production heightened by an incredible, industrious imagination. Widely acclaimed since its initial screenings at the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals, Zeitlin evokes a vivid, almost dreamlike sphere of feral beings and their unrestricted existence, using [...]

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In Review: Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

by Martyn Conterio 14 February 2013

Alex Gibney, acclaimed documentary filmmaker, turns his cine-eye to the plethora of child abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic church in recent years. Far from a modern development, archived reports show incidents have been noted pretty much since the organisation formed and turned ordinary folk into a collective, powerful body that feels it is [...]

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In Review: Holy Motors on Blu-ray

by Michael Ewins 13 February 2013

Jean-Luc Godard once said of cinema, “it is the most beautiful fraud in the world.” What he’d make of Holy Motors remains unknown, but the film – a glorious return to the avant-garde fold for Léos Carax – is surely one of the medium’s most delightfully outré frauds to date; a dizzying, meta-textual carousel of [...]

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