Tzvetan Todorov’s model of narrative equilibrium and the action film go hand-in-hand. Harmony, disruption, restoration. Simple. Enter Taken; Director Pierre Morel kicks things off with some good old fashioned scene setting. Subtle, delicate and about as ordinary as a Nic’ Cage flick. Oh, and we’re also thrust onto the side of his protagonist in the…
The Mist starts off as a routine horror flick, with deliberately-B movie style monsters, blood and screaming people running madly about. And, to be fair, it doesn’t pretend to be anything else at first. But as the film goes on, the viewer discovers that this powerful fantasy disaster from Frank Darabont, adapted from a novella…
Philip Adler explores the lates offering shown by Phoenix Films at the Union Films cinema at Southampton University, Monsieur Lazhar.
Though not quite as accomplished as some of the legendary Studio Ghibli’s finest works, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind remains a triumph in animation that helped to put the studio and director Hayao Miyazaki on the map. Composer Joe Hisaishi provides a typically sweeping and masterful score complimenting the epic nature of the story…
This is a very different film to the other Dracula title selected as part of the 100 Discs of Christmas last month. That one was made by Hammer. This, however, is a Universal horror film. In the 30s, Universal was a pioneer in the horror genre, making scares a legitimate mainstream form of entertainment. Their…
In my opinion, The Village is one of the most beautiful films of recent times. It was tragically misunderstood on its release, which earned it a reputation of being a disappointment and not scary enough. My advice to new viewers would be to treat it like a love story, not a horror movie. Bryce Dallas…
This French triumph, originally titled Á la folie… pas du tout, was the director Laetitia Colombani’s first full-length endeavour. Audrey Tautou, best-known for her role in Amélie, plays the love-sick student Angélique. He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not is a highly original film that, on reflection, is a far-cry from a typical love story.…
Odds are, you’ll know who I mean when I say the name Peter Jackson. The behemoth that is The Lord of the Rings trilogy has ensured that the New Zealander will forever be remembered for his services to film, but that doesn’t mean he started off on such an epic scale. Long before he ventured to Middle-Earth,…
John Patrick Shanley brings his award-winning stage show Doubt to the big screen with brilliant effect in this fine film adaptation. Meryl Streep is terrifically brittle in the role of nun Sister Aloysius, who accuses the school priest of sexually abusing an altar boy. But she hasn’t any proof to back up her accusation (apart from the uncertain musings…
Lost Highway is not for people who like their films to have satisfying endings, and plots with clear beginnings, middles and ends that all work and serve one linear narrative. This movie, directed by David Lynch, is a weird, uneasy, dreamy film – a noir horror movie that morphs into something very bizarre as it…
Superbly adapted from an already controversial novel by Koushun Takami, Director Kinji Fukasaku and his son and scriptwriter Kenta Fukasaku bring to the screen a brilliantly bonkers masterpiece. Heavily stylised and told in a comically ultraviolent fashion that some may find too uncomfortable and shocking to watch, the film passionately paints a darkly original picture of…
It’s best to watch this outstanding, masterful film without knowing too much about it. For this reason, I’m not going to describe the plot beyond the obvious – a group of friends travelling around Texas stumble upon some really grisly people. The best thing about the film is the way it creates a harrowing, unforgettably…
Bette Davis was a great actor, and here she is enjoyably creepy as a Nanny who may or may not pose a threat to the little boy she is employed to take care of. He is certainly scared of her, but his parents dismiss his fears of his nanny as nonsense. This film, released in…
This 1996 adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Emma (one of two adaptations of the book released that year, the other made for ITV) stars Gwyneth Paltrow as the matchmaking heroine who can’t stop meddling in the love lives of her friends. Sharply written and directed by Douglas McGrath, who worked on US TV show Saturday…