When I recently saw Andrew Haigh’s ‘Weekend’, it immediately made me think of Richard Linklater’s ‘Before Sunrise’ (1995). It would be unfair to reduce it to the gay remake of the European auteur chick-flick, but both film bear a few resemblances. Starring Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, ‘Before Sunrise’ tells the story of a once-in-a-lifetime … Continue reading »
After her promising, widely-acclaimed second feature “Fish Tank” in 2009 (see review here) Andrea Arnold returns with an adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic “Wuthering Heights”. If you expected girlish reverie and romantic contemplation of the green English pastures, you might be slightly upset by this nerve-racking 19th-century rock’n’roll romance. Arnold’s take on what is the first … Continue reading »
‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ (2011) by Tomas Alfredson, whose critically acclaimed Swedish-language first feature “Let the Right On In” indicated great skills in the horror department, marks the great return of the Cold War spy movie. As a gentle starter, for those like me who weren’t brought up in a British nursery, the film title … Continue reading »
In the same way I went to see “The Downfall” (2004) by Oliver Hirschbiegel praying I wouldn’t get to find out Hitler was a pleasant chap after all in a film criticised for making one of the world history’s most evil characters ever seem like a sensitive, caring human being, I went to see “The Iron … Continue reading »
Steve McQueen’s second feature “Shame” is now on general release, so it’s perhaps a good time to rediscover “Hunger” (2008), his excellent first film, also starring Michael Fassbender. If you like your movies grim and bitterly real, look no further, “Hunger” will quench your thirst for gloom and throw you into the sordid atmosphere of … Continue reading »
“Submarine” (2010) by The IT Crowd’s Richard Ayoade is a touching coming-of-age movie revolving around dreamy 15-year-old Oliver Tate’s little life in the Welsh countryside. Even if the themes it develops are rather classic, the film has a real freshness about it and its setting in the eighties gives the scenes a genuine feel, unalduterated … Continue reading »
Fish Tank (2009) by Andrea Arnold, heralded as one of British independent cinema’s jewels made in recent years, is well worth the watch. Despite the compulsory working-class drama gloomy trademark, the film draws a contemporary, touching and somehow positive portrait of Mia, a typical teenage girl spending her summer days in her run-down Essex council … Continue reading »
