Country Iran
There is a haunting doubling at the heart of The Friend's House Is Here. It is a film about young artists forced to make their work in secret, and it was itself made in secret, shot on the streets of Tehran under the nose of a regime that
Rating: 3.0★
There is a whole worldview packed into a single administrative decision, and Under a Jarvis Moon builds its best argument from exactly that. In the 1930s and 40s, the United States government needed young men willing to be shipped out to Jarvis, Howland and Baker, three specks of coral and
Rating: 2.5★
There are films you admire and films you enjoy, and sometimes those two categories barely overlap. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within sits squarely in the first group. I can watch it and feel genuine awe at what they pulled off technically, and then sit back at the end feeling oddly
Rating: 3.5★
There's a moment near the start of The Watermelon Woman where the camera just lingers on the inside of a video rental shop, and I felt it land somewhere in my chest before a single plot point had been established. The rows of VHS cases, the counter, the
Rating: 3.5★
There is something wonderfully audacious about the origins of Sign 'o' the Times. When the album underperformed in the American charts, Prince's response was not a re-release or a carefully targeted new single but to go and make an entire concert film to sell the
Rating: 3.0★
Some films you admire more than you enjoy, and some films you respect more than you admire. Titicut Follies sits somewhere in that uncomfortable second category, and I've been turning it over in my head ever since the credits rolled, not because it moved me in any clean
Rating: 2.5★
There are films you respect without ever really feeling, and Distant Voices, Still Lives is one of them. I can see exactly why it is held in such high regard, can feel the devotion and the pain baked into every frame, and still come away from it strangely untouched. That
Rating: 3.0★
There is a version of Jazz on a Summer's Day that I could watch on a warm Friday evening with a glass of something cold and feel completely at peace with the world. Bert Stern's 1959 film, a record of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, is
Rating: 3.0★
There is a moment early on in Jiro Dreams of Sushi when you realise the film is not really about sushi at all. It is about what happens when a person gives their entire life over to one thing, and what that costs them, and what it costs the people
Rating: 3.5★
There are documentaries that succeed on craft, and then there are documentaries that succeed because they take you somewhere you would never otherwise go. Dark Days is firmly the second kind. The moment you understand what Marc Singer has actually done here, you are already half-hooked: he spent an
Rating: 3.0★
The Great Escape, but with chickens. I'll be honest: that is not a bad pitch at all. And in the hands of Aardman, the studio that built its reputation on meticulous, lovingly hand-crafted stop-motion, it should be an absolute home run. The result is good. It
Rating: 3.5★
The most surprising thing about Bride of Frankenstein is how much heart it has. I turned up expecting a lurching-monster picture, a 1935 horror sequel picking up exactly where the original left off, more of the same gothic atmosphere and pitchfork-wielding villagers. What James Whale actually delivers is
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