By Jude Warne. “I move around a lot, not because I’m looking for anything really, but because I’m getting away from things that get bad if I stay,” says Bobby Dupea (Jack Nicholson), the protagonist of Bob Rafelson’s 1970 classic Five Easy Pieces. Bobby Dupea is The Guy who Never […]
The 2015 New York Film Festival Shorts Program
September 21, 2015
By Gary M. Kramer. The New York Film Festival is a terrific showcase for shorts, and this year, there are four short film programs with international, genre, animation, and New York themes that feature many worthwhile films. Here is a sampling of the best shorts from each anthology. In the […]
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation: The Indefatigable Action Spectacle
September 14, 2015
By Kyle Huffman. Every action movie relies on the audience’s suspension of disbelief regarding the humanity and dexterity of its star. Some, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, portray themselves as tank-like monuments of granite that through sheer force of will annihilate all in their path. Others, like Bruce Willis […]
Emily Booth: Putting a Face to Television Horror as Presenter of Horror Channel
September 13, 2015
By Cleaver Patterson. Emily Booth has a wealth of experience both in front of and behind the camera. As a result, the British horror actress and face of television’s popular Horror Channel is better placed than most to comment on the current state of the horror genre, and its place […]
BFI London Film Festival 2015: Festival Programme Launch
September 13, 2015
By Cleaver Patterson. In the February 1984 issue of films magazine Derek Malcom, the newly appointed Director of the London Film Festival, introduced himself with a bold statement, claiming that “the LFF is known all over the world as one of the best-organised and best presented in the business”. Now, over […]
Who Needs Enemies? — Getting Acquainted with Eddie Coyle and His Friends
September 7, 2015
By Jeremy Carr. In The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), Eddie Coyle sure could use a friend. Surrounded by many, known by even more, with a family and with former and current partners in crime, Eddie is nevertheless alone. He is a tragically solitary figure whose perhaps naive earnestness leaves […]
State of Siege: The Radical Potential of Realism
August 31, 2015
By William Repass. In today’s economic and political climate, it can be tempting to dismiss film as merely spectacle: a flimsy replacement for or deflection from lived experience that nonetheless empowers and enriches the few at the expense of the many. Even accomplished films, if we step back and consider […]
A Director’s Labour of Love Gone Wrong: Ketan Mehta’s Manjhi: The Mountain Man (2015)
By Devapriya Sanyal. Beginning in 2012, the Indian film audience has been treated on and off to a number of excellent biopics – the topics being covered in these films varying greatly, both in terms of subject matter as well as treatment. Ketan Mehta’s Manjhi: The Mountain Man is one […]
Never Let Go: Not Your Typical Horror Fare
August 24, 2015
By Cleaver Patterson. It sounds odd that the screening for a film which is not primarily horror – at least in the generally accepted sense of the word – was the first to sell out at a festival dedicated to the genre. However that’s just what happened when tickets for […]
Strength and Tenacity: Why Giving Up Isn’t an Option for Angela Dixon in Never Let Go
August 22, 2015
By Cleaver Patterson. The sensitive subject of child abduction is brought to life in the new thriller Never Let Go. On the eve of its first European screening at this year’s FILM4 FrightFest, the film’s star Angela Dixon spoke to Cleaver Patterson about the challenges she, and its director/writer Howard […]