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Features
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Life Is Slight: Boyhood by Richard Linklater
2 August 2014, by Jack Wormell
Although I was planning to see Double Play, a potentially interesting documentary about the friendship between film directors Richard Linklater and James Benning, the former a long-standing darling of American semi-indie who flirts with Hollywood (The School of Rock), the other a firm outsider of the mainstream who makes feature length, non-narrative landscape films, it was cancelled.
So instead I went to watch Linklater’s latest film Boyhood, and with the spectre of Double Play looming (...)
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’Memphis’ and ’20 Feet From Stardom’
28 June 2014, by Coco Green
’American Idol’ owes me, big time. Whilst they didn’t clip my wings during an audition by highlighting my average singing talent, their on-screen auditions showcasing amazing, (allegedly) undiscovered vocal talent has served to divert my attention from the lives of amazing, discovered vocal talent that still has not ’made it’. ’20 Feet from Stardom’ is a documentary profiling background singers, covering the last 50 years and reminding us that talent is one thing many aspiring singers are (...)
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The Invisible War
18 May 2014, by Coco Green
’The Invisible War’ is less about a secret war that rape victims are fighting in the military than a series of public and private battles to fix a broken system. Well, broken for the victims of rape, not so much for the rapists who remain invisible to the criminal justice system.
Audiences will readily identify the usual drill that plays out when rape is reported: What were you wearing? What were you doing? But in the context of the US military other interesting questions are raised, (...)
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Starred Up
16 May 2014, by Viewing Pleasure
David Mackenzie’s new film is a much-welcome addition to the British prison drama genre, that weaves sophisticated narrative into a bold critique of the penal system and a mockery of rehabilitation inside.
Set in the microcosm of an English prison, Starred Up is the story of serial offender, 19-year-old Eric Love (Jack O’Connell), who has left the relative comfort of foster homes and juvie, to join inmates, including his estranged father Neville, (Ben Mendelson), in an adult prison. The (...)
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Tim’s Vermeer
1 May 2014, by Judy Harris
For the most part Tim’s Vermeer is a film about vision, about how we literally see the world- the limitations of sight and its augmentation through technological means. It’s also a film about how we see the world in the figurative sense; Tim Jenison, a 21st century computer software inventor (whom I would comfortably place in the top 1% or thereabouts) sees it, affectionately, as his playground.
The film takes as its premise the idea that Tim and 17th century Dutch painter Johannes (...)
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Noah
21 April 2014, by Coco Green
’Noah’ is certainly appropriately titled. This isn’t a big screen portrayal of one of the great biblical stories of Noah and the Ark. It’s a story about a group of white Europeans/Americans/New Zealanders with accents that have no connection to the Middle East where the Biblical story takes place (beyond the names they didn’t even try!!). Given that the Ark wasn’t mentioned in the title, and my knowledge of the actors who were cast in leading roles, I should’ve taken these clues that this (...)
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Alone
20 April 2014, by Coco Green
Alone is a documentary depicting the lives of three young girls, Fen (4), Zhen (6) and Ying (10) in rural, south west China. These young children have been doubly left- first by their mother (for reasons which remain largely unknown) and subsequently by their father, whose flight from the family home is undertaken in order to find work in the city and send money home. Visually, the film’s landscape scenes are so vivid and plush it’s easy to forget that its very barrenness and their lack of (...)
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Stranger by the Lake (L’inconnu du Lac)
17 April 2014, by Matt Bray
Alain Guiraudie’s erotic gay thriller is located in rural France and takes place over ten summer days. Set on the shores of a vast inviting lake, a small group of men spend the day building up all-over tans in between swimming and cruising around the adjoining forest. We quickly fall into the world of the film and Guiraudie presents with ease the rituals that these gay men enjoy as they escape the confines of heterosexual society. However, we quickly feel that all is not well in ‘Gay (...)
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Only Lovers Left Alive
2 March 2014, by James Clossick
The only thing wrong with Jim Jarmusch’s sumptuous film Only Lovers Left Alive is the title. It baffles me why so many directors, or whoever picks the titles, insist on choosing such confusing ones. I like my film titles to tell me what I’m in for. Like Trainspotting, Million Dollar Baby and Salmon Fishing in The Yemen. The film should of course be called THE Only Lovers Left Alive. See? Just the addition of the definite article and all becomes clear. Now it’s obvious that the lovers, Adam (...)
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The Wolf of Wall Street - Leo’s Cheeks
2 March 2014, by James Skipp
REVIEW: THE WOLF OF WALL STREET By James Skipp @JamesSkipp
There was one thought that kept gnawing at my brain during a recent trip to see Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street: was it possible to cook a three-course meal inside Leonardo DiCaprio’s cheeks?
It was a question I resolved to answer as soon as I returned to my flagship restaurant in Maidstone, Kent. With the assistance of my good friends Donald Chegwin (the poet) and Charlton Bloom (the critically-acclaimed film critic), I (...)