2008; written and directed by Sion Sono; 237 mins
Did your last trip to the cinema not contain enough Catholicism, Terrorism, Mistaken Lesbianism, Ninja-based Up-skirt photography or patricidal castration? Don’t get me wrong, I loved Selma but I was left somewhat wanting on certain fronts… Continue reading
2007; directed by David Fincher; adapted by James Vanderbilt; 162 mins
It’s very easy to snipe about Hollywood for nurturing the Zack Snyders of this world but we forget that for every ten of them, we get a Christopher Nolan or a David Fincher. Amidst a largely solid C.V. of features including Se7en and The Social Network, this is comfortably Fincher’s greatest work and one of the great films of the last decade. Continue reading
1969; directed by Costa-Gavras; adapted by Jorge Semprún; 127 mins
“Any similarity to real persons or events is not coincidental. It is INTENTIONAL.”
One of the most baldly provocative opening statements to any movie, we hit the ground running in this not very fictionalised tale depicting the public assassination of a prominent leftist politician and the flagrant cover-up by police and military. Continue reading
2001; directed by Alfonso Cuarón; written by Alfonso Cuarón and Carlos Cuarón; 106 mins
2003; adapted and directed by David Mackenzie; 98 mins
In Fifty Shades of Grey, my complaint was that we aren’t invested in the pivotal sex scenes because we don’t care about the drama. What has happened? Because just ten/fifteen years ago, there were a brace of really good films about sex that talked frankly but honestly about all our dirty desires. Continue reading
1970; directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin; 91 mins
With the recent passing of Albert Maysles, one of the greatest directing teams has finally gone. Alongside his brother David (1931-1987) and a plethora of collaborators including editor/co-director Charlotte Zwerin, he helped lead the way for the Direct Cinema movement which joined the cultural upheavals of the 1960s to revolutionise the way we see movies. Direct cinema was a form of documentary that was born out of frustration with the standard documentary “lectures” and also the arrival of affordable, handheld cameras that could shoot decent-sized rolls of film. This enabled filmmakers such as the Maysles and D.A. Pennebaker to shoot real events for long periods of time thus recording life as unadorned as possible. As pioneer Richard Leacock said; “It was freedom… You can move!” Continue reading
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