Tag Archives: Category: Review

“Why don’t you try to understand?” asks Rita Hayworth’s femme fatale of Orson Welles’ Irish sailor. The question resonates with anyone befuddled by the plot of Welles’ studio-hacked 1947 noir, but Welles’ dazzling direction more than makes up for any lack of viewer understanding. Welles was less interested in the …

From the handheld opening shot of a kid barrelling through slums, a spirit of rough-hewn urgency drives debut director Diego Quemada-Díez’s drama about four Guatemalan teenagers trying to cross the border into the US. Casting non-professionals (Brandon López and Karen Martínez foremost) in the lead roles, Quemada-Díez channels Sin Nombre …

Following Pot Luck (2002) and Russian Dolls (2005), Cedric Klapisch’s charming-but-choppy trilogy culminates with… more of the same. Pinballing off his ex-partner, his lesbian bestie, and an old flame, Romain Duris’ restless novelist Xavier plunges into a Green Card -style fake marriage that threatens to turn this sophisticated New York …

“Things are always worse the second time around,” Deputy Chief Hardy (Nick Offerman) cautions our heroic pair of bumbling cops, Schmidt and Jenko (Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum), at the start of 22 Jump Street – a sequel to a remake of a TV show. He’s talking about his charges’ …

A good mystery should keep you guessing until the very end. It should deliver a solution that defies your earlier instincts and speculation, while also making complete sense. Murdered: Soul Suspect does keep you guessing until the end, but for the wrong reason. You’ll wonder if and when Soul Suspect …

Ti West ( The Innkeepers ) makes horror films that burn slow and pay off big. This found-footage effort, however, is (comparatively) spritely and much more effective in build-up than denouement. Two “immersionist” journalists (AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg) accompany a photographer (Kentucker Audley) on a mission to save his sister …

This collection of 10 rarely seen shorts curated by London’s Screen Archives does exactly what is says on the tin. The nuptials of the title prove a particular treat: the wartime ceremony at a Kingsbury church features not so much a blushing but a beaming bride, unrestrained snogging, and a …

The first, and still the best, adap of a Hemingway novel. In this 1932 classic from director Frank Borzage, set in WW1 Italy, Gary Cooper is the US ambulance driver who falls for Helen Hayes’ English nurse and goes AWOL to join her – to find she’s pregnant with his …

Fronting riot grrrl instigators Bikini Kill and pop feminists Le Tigre, Kathleen Hanna was an outspoken voice for women in ‘90s US punk’s macho moshpit. It’s hugely moving, then, when Sini Anderson’s docu-portrait reveals her quieted by illness. Scuffed archive footage, talking heads and chats with Hanna and husband/Beastie Boy …

In a battered, isolated farmhouse somewhere in a war zone, a grieving may lays out the corpse of his wife. His two children over nervously. Then trucks approach. The father grabs his shotgun – but it’s not troops, but a small travelling circus. They pitch camp; their aged ringmaster is …