Late night horror screenings are one of my favourite things about MIFF.
Continue readingTag Archives: 4 stars
Occupied City (2023)
Standard
A four hour documentary is always going to have its challenges. Steve McQueen (Hunger (2008)) takes a deep dive into the recorded history of the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam by overlaying a narrated retelling with a river of footage of the city in 2020 and 2021.
Continue readingTimestalker (2024)
Standard
Never Look Away (2018)
Standard
The credentials of Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others (2006)) were enough to get me to this 189 minute German epic at its first session. Fortified with a strong coffee and a stash of dark chocolate and mandarins, I felt confident that I could stay the course.
Continue readingPoms (2019)
Standard
Charming and mostly predictable, Poms is like spending a cosy afternoon with wine and a good friend.
Continue readingTop End Wedding (2019)
Standard
This is a heartwarming romcom about falling in love with Country, culture and family.
Continue readingAll is True (2018)
Standard
There have been a few decent British biopics of late (I wrote this in 2019). Well-crafted, character-driven and largely sympathetic toward the subject – The Chaperone (2018) and Red Joan (2018) come to mind.
Continue readingHattrick (2018)
Standard
I watched this film five years ago and never finished my review. Here’s what I wrote at the time compared to AI-generated text …
Continue readingGhostbook Yokaipedia (Ghost Book Obakezukan) (2022)
Standard
Like a Miyazaki story come to life, with cuteness and soundtrack by Spielberg and a cast from a Japanese staging of The Cursed Child. But don’t let that put you off.
Continue readingAll Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen Nichts Neues) ( 2022)
Standard
If you are looking for a film that relentlessly depicts the awful hopelessness of war, Edward Berger’s re-adaptation of Erich Remarque’s novel is the one to watch.
Continue reading
fillums 