A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Reviews of films from the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales).
Ruaridh Arrow, “How to Start a Revolution” (2011) Here’s an interesting one-hour documentary about Gene Sharp, a modest political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of…
Adam Curtis, “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (Episode 3: The Monkey in the Machine and the Machine in the Monkey)” (2011) Final installation…
Adam Curtis, “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (Episode 2: The Uses and Abuses of Vegetational Concepts)” (2011) Second episode in his documentary trilogy…
Alfred Hitchcock, “Young and Innocent” (1938) A plucky teenage girl aids a young man on the run from bumbling police who suspect him of murder by…
Adam Curtis, “The Way of All Flesh” (1997) As told in this fascinating documentary, the story of Henrietta Lacks – or rather, that of her cancer…
Adam Curtis “The Living Dead (Episode 2: You have used Me as a Fish long enough)” (1995) Curtis sure doesn’t do things by halves and his “The…
Adam Curtis, “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (Episode 1: Love and Power)” (2011) A curious and challenging visual essay, the first in a…
British Films, French and French-language Films
Werner Herzog, “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” (2010) In 1994, three speleologists discovered and explored a cave in southern France and found prehistoric paintings apparently dating back…
Chris Cunningham, “Rubber Johnny” (2005) Started small as a commercial based on the idea of a raver’s body morphing into different shapes as he dances, then…
Australian and New Zealand Films, British Films
Paul Campion, “Night of the Hell Hamsters” (2005), “Eel Girl” (2008) Film shorts are a flexible medium for telling particular kinds of stories or expressing ideas…