Director – Yoshihiro Nakamura – 2009 – Japan – Cert. 15 – 112m ***** I review Fish Story for All The Anime. A comet threatens to destroy life on Earth. Three years earlier a religious cult attempts a ferry hijack. In the 1970s a punk band records and disbands before the Sex Pistols do. Welcome […]
Directors – Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead – 2012 – US – Cert. 15– 93m **** First time lucky? Benson & Moorhead’s ultra-low budget debut feature both anticipates and ties in with The Endless – out now as a second disc on the UK Blu-ray & DVD of The Endless Michael (Peter Cilella) drops in on […]
Director – Karel Zeman – 1961 – Czechoslovakia – Cert. U – 85m ***** Available on Blu-ray/DVD and now on BFI Player too. This capsule review originally appeared in Reform in 2017 as part of a wider Watch And Talk review roundup. Using not only live action but also every form of animation you can […]
Director – Karel Zeman – 1958 – Czechoslovakia – Cert. U – 82m ***** Blu-ray/DVD available from Second Run. Review originally written as an entry for the Aurum Film Encyclopedia: War (series editor: Phil Hardy). Sadly, the book was never published. Vynález Zkázy aka Invention For Destruction, The Invention Of Destruction, The Deadly Invention, The […]
Director – Karel Zeman – 1955 – Czechoslovakia – Cert. PG – 86m ***** Blu-ray/DVD available from Second Run. I’ve written about the pioneering Czech director Karel Zeman in these pages before regarding his 1961 film The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (BD/DVD, cert U, 85 mins). The latest of his works to see a release in […]
Director – Sion Sono – 2015 – Japan – Cert. PG – 117m ***** Blu-ray available at Arrow Video’s Third Window Films Shop. Sion Sono’s wonderfully insane, four-hour art-house epic Love Exposure (2008) made great waves on its UK release and for this writer, the extraordinary Love & Peace (2015) is a welcome return to […]
Director – Toshiaki Toyoda – 2001 – Japan – Cert. 15 – 83m ***** Dual format Blu-ray/DVD available at Arrow Video’s Third Window Films site. Teenage high school movie Blue Spring (2001) centres on the leader of a violent boys’ gang in their final year. The nonchalant Kujo (Ryuhei Matsuda) has befriended Aoki (Hirofumi Arai […]
Directors – Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead – 2017 Never go back. Watch a kaleidoscopic marvel, the extraordinary, online trailer for the latest film by (and featuring) independent filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead – in cinemas and digital HD on Friday, June 29th 2018 Quote: “I was told… that they were all going to kill […]
Directors – Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead – 2017 – US – Cert. 15 – 111m ***** Second time lucky? Two brothers who escaped from a strange desert cult decide to go back for a second look, which may prove to be their undoing – in cinemas & digital HD on Friday, June 29th and on […]
Director – Paul Bettany – 2014 – US – Cert. 18 – 105m ***** Released on DVD in 2016. First time British writer director Paul Bettany (better known as an actor) dedicated this to “the couple who lived outside my building”. Illegal Nigerian, Muslim immigrant Tahir (Anthony Mackie) and American, agnostic junkie Hannah (Jennifer Connelly) […]