The Toll, 2021. Directed by Ryan Andrew Hooper Starring Michael Smiley, Annes Elwy, Iwan Rheon, Dewi Morris, Evelyn Mok, Steve Oram, and Julian Glover. SYNOPSIS: After a chance encounter with an old enemy, a toll booth operator and master criminal awaits a violent fate approaching his quiet, rural Welsh post. At what point does homage […]
International Film Festival Rotterdam – Friends and Strangers
Friends and Strangers, 2021. Directed by James Vaughan. Starring Fergus Wilson, Emma Diaz, Victoria Maxwell, Greg Zimbulis, David Gannon, Jayden Muir, and Poppy Jones. SYNOPSIS: Two twenty-somethings from middle class backgrounds stumble into adulthood, with little ambition despite a lack of roadblocks. There are few films with an opening quite so poignantly evocative as Mike […]
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2021 Review – Feast
Feast, 2021. Directed by Tom Leyendekker. Starring Trudi Klever, Eelco Smits, Koen Van Kaam, Kuno Bakker, and Vincent van der Valk. SYNOPSIS: A look at those involved with the 2007 sex parties in Groningen, during which men were assaulted and injected with HIV contaminated blood. How can pure evil be portrayed, or articulated on screen […]
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2021 Review – Shorta
Shorta, 2020. Directed by Anders Ølholm and Frederik Louis Hviid. Starring Jacob Lohmann, Simon Sears, Tarek Zayat, and Özlem Saglanmak. SYNOPSIS: Two policemen become trapped and fight to escape a dangerous distract when violence erupts, following the death of a criminal in custody. In the last year, the world has seen the death of George […]
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2021 Review – Riders of Justice
Riders of Justice, 2020. Directed by Anders Thomas Jensen. Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Lars Brygmann, Nicolas Bro, Andrea Heick Gadeberg, Jesper Ole Feit Andersen, and Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt. SYNOPSIS: A man who has recently lost his wife in a train crash is contacted by a mathematician who doesn’t believe the event was an […]
Movie Review – The Mauritanian (2021)
The Mauritanian, 2021. Directed by Kevin Macdonald. Starring Tahar Rahim, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jodie Foster, Shailene Woodley and Zachary Levi. SYNOPSIS: Accused of recruiting terrorists for the 9/11 attacks, Mohamedou Ould Slahi is held without being charged for over a decade in the infamous Guantanamo Bay facility. In the wake of a globally tragic event, fear […]
Movie Review – Away (2019)
Away, 2019. Directed by Gints Zilbalodis. SYNOPSIS: Stranded on a mysterious island, a boy endeavours to find his way back to civilisation with the help of a small bird, all the while pursued by a dark force. Being stranded on an island might be some people’s idea of paradise, particularly one so naturally beautiful, seemingly […]
The Essential Movies of David Fincher
Dan Sareen presents David Fincher’s best movies… Few would have predicted David Fincher rising to the top of a greatest filmmakers of all time list. After all, this was the guy who started off doing commercials and (through heavy studio interference) botched his blockbuster debut with Alien 3. And yet, things turned around for the […]
Movie Review – New Order (2020)
New Order, 2020. Directed by Michel Franco. Starring Naian Gonzalez Norvind, Diego Boneta, and Monica Del Carmen. SYNOPSIS: A wedding between two wealthy, high society individuals is interrupted by rioting and criminal activity. Violence on screen is not a novel concept. Indeed, the violence we see in films often reflects that which exists in the […]
Movie Review – The Human Voice (2020)
The Human Voice, 2020. Directed by Pedro Almodovar. Starring Tilda Swinton. SYNOPSIS: A woman waits for a phonecall from her ex-lover of 5 years, after he has recently left her. In 1930, Jean Cocteau’s monologue The Human Voice premiered at the Comedie-Francaise. The piece at that time would have seemed dazzlingly experimental – an audience […]
