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Burke And Hare (1971)

by Martin | January 26, 2020 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

This is director Vernon Sewell’s last film and there’s something fitting about that: after two ventures into the more fantastical side of horror (The Blood Beast Terror and The Curse Of The Crimson Altar from 1966 and 1968 respectively) neither of which went out of...

A Brexit Trilogy

by Martin | March 24, 2018 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

GOD'S OWN COUNTRY (2017) Brexit – is it humanity asserting its freedom to be perverse in the face of global capitalism, or is it just a backward-leaning movement composed of people whose preciousness about their 'British identity' makes you wonder who the real...

Frightfest 2016 Day Two

by Martin | October 22, 2016 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

FURY OF THE DEMON On day two I returned unaccompanied to Shepherd's Bush as Dave had to get up early on Sunday, but another recurring character in this blog - Michael Blyth, BFI cult film programmer - was sitting nearby for the first two screenings, which was oddly...

Our Time / Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

by Martin | September 7, 2019 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

OUR TIME There was quite a high turnout for this three-hour epic of directorial self-laceration from Mexican director Carlos Reygadas, although admittedly this was at the Minema screen at the Curzon Bloomsbury, which seats about 20 people. I had a guy ahead of me...

LFF 2019: Queen Of Diamonds (1991) / Krabi 2562

by Martin | January 26, 2020 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

QUEEN OF DIAMONDS (1991) Showing in the 'Treasures From The Archive' section at the LFF, Nina Menkes’ Queen of Diamonds features her sister Tinka playing a character who, in the director’s words, ‘hasn’t learned to say hello’. In keeping with her air of diffidence,...

White Bird In A Blizzard

by Martin | April 12, 2015 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

This adaptation of Laura Kasischke's young adult novel finds director Gregg Araki in less than full-on mode, and my first impression, such is the uncertainty of tone here, is that when he isn't in full-on mode (eg: Nowhere, Kaboom) he doesn't know what he's doing. But...

Crazy About Love: Fingernails, Vincent Must Die, and Tchaikovsky’s Wife

by Martin | March 3, 2024 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

FINGERNAILS Love is lighter than air, sings Stephen Merritt of The Magnetic Fields. It floats away when you let go. Love therefore needs to be grounded: in Greek director Christos Nikou's follow-up to his debut film Apples it is grounded in having your fingernails...

Frightfest 2015 Day One

by Martin | September 12, 2015 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

The Rotten Link Raulo and Roberta (Luis Ziembrowski and Paula Brasca) are two unlikely siblings: a simple-minded hulk, he looks old enough to be her father while she is a pretty young thing barely out of her teens. But they fit into their isolated Argentinian...

Strait Jacket (1964) / Lizzie

by Martin | December 1, 2018 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

STRAIT JACKET Winding up the Joan Crawford season at the BFI was this William Castle production from the trashier end of her spectrum, though compared to Trog (1970) it's a masterpiece. The audience have come over-determined to giggle at a camp classic, and to be fair...

Salvo

by Martin | April 26, 2014 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

Mafia hitman Salvo (Saleh Bakri) kills a guy but instead of despatching his sister Rita (Sara Serraiocco) - a witness to the crime - he chooses to hide her in an abandoned factory and keep her fed and watered. Why? Love? Pity? Or is he caught on the horns of a...