For a film that treats on the themes of free will and the identity of God, The Adjustment Bureau is an awfully light-headed popcorn movie. Upon reflection, I think this is all for the good: better for these concept-heavy sci-fi thrillers with pot-addled-freshmen-late-night-bull-session philosophies to dismiss themselves & save the rest of us the work: […]

Watching Lee-Chang Dong’s Poetry, I was reminded quite irresistibly of Bong Joon-Ho’s Mother, and not only – at least I hope not – because both are South Korean films about matriarchs forced into terrible ethical decisions to safeguard the future of their young male heir. Though God knows, films have been compared on weaker grounds. […]

Drive Angry is above all else a shockingly fetishistic motion picture. It fetishises acts of brutal violence; it fetishises gorgeously preserved early-70s muscle cars; in an extremely distant third place, it manages, just barely, to fetishise naked women. But mostly violence and cars: the former presented by director Patrick Lussier with lingering, worshipful slow-motion, the […]

Robert Hamer’s contribution to the Carry On Campaign brought along with it something of a present: a plausible excuse to write about a movie that I will admit to enjoying far beyond any defensible reason. Of course, it’s actually a pretty fine piece of cinema, but my affection is mired rather more in space travel […]