Leonardo DiCaprio stars as the infamous J. Edgar Hoover, first director of the FBI, in Clint Eastwood’s new drama about one of the most controversial figures in US history. Director: Clint Eastwood Writer: Dustin Lance Black Studio: Warner Bros Pictures Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench Release: November 9, 2011
Mr. Hastings, Assuming you’ve recently been inundated with angry emails, I thought I’d quickly and respectfully explain why so many of your customers are baffled and discouraged by your decision to split the streaming and DVD services. Let me start with a question: What made Netflix great? Fast shipping? Great prices? Yes, both were huge [...]
Martin Scorsese has many things: the respect of his filmmaking peers, a secure place in the pantheon of Hollywood’s great directors, and an Academy Award, to boot. He also has a lot of hobbies, including film preservation and rock music. Another is a longtime fascination with the works of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, especially his [...]
It’s Guy Fawkes Night, and the South London sky is pulsing with brilliant explosions. In the midst of the celebration, Sam (Jodie Whittaker) is mugged at knife-point by a gang of teen hoodlums. Before they get away with their meager take, however, a flaming object smashes into a nearby car. Moses (John Boyega), the gang’s leader, [...]
This year the Riga International Film Festival ‘Arsenals’ has chosen to honour Latvian documentarist Herz Frank on the occasion of his 85th birthday. Sporting his signature knitted beret and Leica camera, Frank attended the opening of an exhibition on his life and work at Riga’s small but modern Film Museum, where he signed copies [...]
‘Arsenals’, the 21st Riga International Film Festival has begun, running from the 10th–18th of September 2011. Invited as a member of the FIPRESCI critics’ jury, I’ll be focusing mainly on the newest Baltic cinema. Today, though, I had a chance to catch a film from the festival’s International selection. The very title of Sivaroj Kongasakul’s [...]
The Abyss (1989) The beginning of James Cameron’s love affair with the sea (excluding “Piranha II: The Spawning” of course), “The Abyss” follows a team of offshore oil-rig workers tapped by the military to rescue survivors trapped in a sunken submarine at the bottom of the Cayman Trough. Cameron’s eye for cinematic imagery and flair [...]
In Potiche, Catherine Deneuve plays Suzanne Pujol, the titular ‘trophy wife’ who thinks that jogging, housekeeping and writing light verse are enough to keep her happy. But deep down, she feels useless: her children have grown up, her husband Robert scoffs at her ideas and opinions, and the maid does all the real work in [...]
We’ll always have Casablanca
‘Carnage’ slaughters dialogue with theatrics
Loco: London’s 1st Comedy Film Festival
Orlando: Does Sex Matter?
A soothing demise: Lars von Trier’s ‘Melancholia’ considered
The Power of Limits in The Five Obstructions
Surviving ‘Surviving Life’
‘The Other’ at The 2nd London Iranian Film Festival
‘Leaving’: Made in Prague
A Step Forward: New African Film in Paris
