Gary Collinson selects his Five Essential Video Nasties… In the early 1980s the rise in popularity of the VHS cassette was met with concerns from some quarters (namely morality crusaders such as Mary Whitehouse, religious groups and media organisations looking to stir a moral panic) about the content of the unregulated home video market in […]

Sin Nombre, 2009. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. Starring Édgar Flores, Paulina Gaitán, Kristyan Ferrer and Tenoch Huerta. SYNOPSIS: A Honduran girl and a Mexican gang-banger undertake a perilous trek towards a new life across the border in the United States. The feature debut of American cinematographer Cary Joji Fukunaga, Sin Nombre presents a bleak […]

My Neighbours the Yamadas, 1999. Written and directed by Isao Takahata. Featuring the voice talents of James Belushi, Molly Shannon, Daryl Sabara and Liliana Mumy. SYNOPSIS: A series of episodes showing the ups and downs of everyday life for a family living in Tokyo. My Neighbours the Yamadas was written and directed by Isao Takahata, […]

Laputa – Castle in the Sky, 1986. Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Featuring the voice talents of Anna Paquin, James Van Der Beek, Mark Hamill, Cloris Leachman and Jim Cummings. SYNOPSIS: A young boy helps a girl with a mysterious crystal hunted by pirates, the army and secret agents in the search for a […]

Cherokee Summer selects her Five Essential Anime Movies… I must confess that once (and I emphasis on the ‘once’) I was an anime nerd. A big one. I’d watch anything and everything to do with anime, read tons of manga, became obsessed with the Japanese culture, and attended yearly conventions to meet like-minded people who […]

Hollywood legend Dennis Hopper has died at his home in California earlier today from complications of prostate cancer, aged 74. Hopper – who had battled the illness for almost a year and had recently received a long-overdue star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – enjoyed a career that spanned over half a century. He […]

A Town Called Panic (French: Panique au village), 2009. Directed by Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar. Featuring the voice talents of Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Jeanne Balibar, Bouli Lanners and Benoît Poelvoorde. SYNOPSIS: A trio of plastic toys embark on a series of surreal adventures. Due to the predictability and unoriginality of a large proportion […]

Despicable Me, 2010. Directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud. Featuring the voice talents of Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand and Julie Andrews. SYNOPSIS: Evil supervillain Gru (Steve Carell) finds out he’s not the number one villain anymore and has been replaced by a younger, arrogant teen named Vector (Jason Segel). Determined the return […]

American: The Bill Hicks Story, 2009. Directed by Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas. SYNOPSIS: Photo-animated documentary on the life of comedian’s comedian Bill Hicks. Now here’s an odd fish. A film about the life of Bill Hicks that’s roughly half as vitriolic, hardly anywhere near as controversial, and barely a fraction as funny as the […]