A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
British Films, North American Films
Rose Glass, “Love Lies Bleeding” (2024) A surprisingly entertaining film, spoilt only by a cartoonish climax of wishful female empowerment in which love, even lesbian love,…
Kristoffer Borgli, “Dream Scenario” (2023) This psychological fantasy comedy film is as oddball as they come, yet “Dream Scenario”, the first English-language feature film from Norwegian…
British Films, North American Films
Yorgos Lanthimos, “Poor Things” (2023) A visually sumptuous feast, set in an alternative late Victorian steampunk world, “Poor Things” is a science fantasy concoction revolving around…
British Films, North American Films
Lee Tamahori, “Die Another Day” (2002) For the twentieth movie in a film franchise celebrating 40 years, the scriptwriters were tasked to come up with a…
Hayao Miyazaki, “The Boy and the Heron” (2023) A decade after “The Wind Rises”, the film that originally had been intended as his swansong, Hayao Miyazaki…
Jim Henson, “Labyrinth” (1986) A film very much of its time, “Labyrinth” has not aged too well and the 1980s-era disco music oozes cheese from every…
British Films, North American Films
Christopher Nolan, “Tenet” (2019) For an example of how not to make a blockbuster sci-fi thriller, Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” must surely rate as the number one…
Jordan Vogt-Roberts, “Kong: Skull Island” (2017) An example of how post-2000 Hollywood is squeezing as much juice as it can from all its past films (plus…
Francis Ford Coppola, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992) A visually lavish and often surreal presentation, Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of the famous vampire novel still holds up…
Wolfgang Petersen, “Troy” (2004) Loosely based on Homer’s epic poem “Iliad”, this blockbuster spectacle of the Trojan War plays hard and fast with the details of…