Merry awards season, one and all. Preparations of excitement, glee and eye-rolling apathy are well under way. We’ve had the Golden Globes and Baftas and today, we’ll have the Oscars – the most confusingly tiresome yet still engrossing film event of the year. While I’m too old to watch the Oscars (I’ve always been too … Continue reading
Tag Archives: social issues
LFF 2016 Round-up: PART 2
LOST IN PARIS (2016/2014)/ Dir. Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon (France) MANCHESTER BY THE SEA (2016)/Dir. Kenneth Lonergan (US) One of the more anticipated films on my list, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA will almost certainly quietly asserts itself in many a year-end best films list. Kenneth Lonergan, a meastro of slice-of-life film and observing the ‘ordinary’, … Continue reading
60th London Film Festival: PART 1
It’s been a long month with many big life changes happening since this year’s BFI London Film Festival, but I couldn’t resist reporting back on what was a particularly successful festival. 60 years of bringing the best of world cinema to London masses, the Festival felt the need to go large or go home. And … Continue reading
When a film you think you’d like is REALLY problematic? BLACK
Compared to other social commentary films like LA HAINE, BLACK is a love story set against the violent world of urban warfare of young second generation immigrants – the 1080s of Moroccan descent and the Black Bronx, presumably of Congolese descent. Both groups alienated by the racism and prejudice in language and skin colour of … Continue reading
Diary of a Cannes First-timer 2016
(Disclaimer: Please, just indulge me on this one, I’ll get back to reviewing very soon) Imagine a world – world in which board members of one of the most prestigious and glitzy film festivals in the world, collectively came to the joint decision that Oscars monologue and the in-between bits of awkward song and dance … Continue reading
LFF Round-Up: Carol
While reading the beautifully melancholic but hopeful Patricia Highsmith pulp classic, The Price Of Salt a few years ago, I had a passing thought that this would be the perfect Todd Haynes venture – an apt follow-up in some respects to one of the most graceful odes to the 1950s era, Far From Heaven. His … Continue reading
FORCE MAJEURE
I had heard many a rumbling about this film for a good year but opportunities to see it seemed to escape me for what seemed liked an eternity. Quietly lauded and then seemingly forgotten I was very pleased to see FORCE MAJEURE get a theatrical release (albeit a limited one) and even more pleased to see it … Continue reading
SELMA
I won’t tell you how I managed to watch an Academy screener of SELMA at a friend’s house, a few weeks before the film’s general release. Because I’d have to kill you all. Or be killed by the kind person – who shall not be named – who entrusted us with this precious parcel. Massive buildup … Continue reading
The Return! Festival Round-up Part 1
Hello strangers! It’s been a while. A long long while. I’ve barely recovered from two festivals (London Film Festival and Film Africa) while working my now full-time job. But I won’t lament the self-caused exhaustion I caused myself because I have too much film goodness to talk about. I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot … Continue reading
New Feature: Blast From The Past…Join me as I Retrofy!
Much of what I review touches upon just a tiny portion of the surfeit of cinema I consume. In my attempts to cover newer independent releases, I find myself regretting not including some really marvellous filmmaking forgotten to the ages. So here is a new, hopefully regular feature, Blast From The Past that will look at more classic film that I champion. I implore … Continue reading