Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) – an introspective into the individual and their image as an art.

The ‘persona’ can be defined as a mask created by the individual that one wears to both conceal their true nature and to reflect themselves to others; a kind of social face, according to psychiatrist Carl Jung (1953). This could be the explanation behind the actions of the characters within Bergman’s Persona, a film which …

His House (Remi Weekes, 2020) – a promising debut of terror, tension, and trepidation.

Weekes’ debut feature film is a mixture of human drama and conventional horror, exploring the trauma of survivor’s guilt through the main characters and their environments. Bol (Sope Dirisu) and Rial Major (Wanmi Mosaku) are a husband and wife who have fled their home of South Sudan, escaping the grips of terror and war that …

Style vs. Substance: Conflicting Cultures in the Cinéma du Look.

La Revue du Cinéma, issue n° 448, May 1989: French film critic Raphaël Bassan classes three filmmakers under the movement title ‘Cinéma du Look’. Luc Besson, of Leon (1994) notoriety and its predecessors Subway (1985) and Nikita (1990); Jean-Jacques Beineix of Betty Blue  (1986) cult fame and the starting point of Cinéma du Look, Diva …

Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967) – the sardonic termination of the bourgeoisie.

Colourful yet bleak, violent yet funny, politically critical yet excessively absurd – there are many ways to describe Week End/Weekend, Godard’s scathing critique of the bourgeoisie and social class portrayed through a lens that switches between ludicrous images of cannibalism and obscene amounts of automobile accidents to long monologues of political policies, Marx, and Neo-colonialism. …

The Devil All the Time (Antonio Campos, 2020) – a confused fizzle rather than a slow burn.

An all-star cast that brings genuinely superb performances to the table doesn’t elevate this film enough to the level it could have achieved. Spanning generations, years, and two rural states; building on the aftereffects of World War 2 and feeling the tense beginnings of the Vietnam War; doused in a thick coating of hyper-religious attitudes …

Babyteeth (Shannon Murphy, 2019) – the falls, failures, and faults of human mortality.

Young, naïve, and jumping at any opportunity to add some punch to her life before it ends leads the wig-wearing schoolgirl Milla (Eliza Scanlen) into the arms of a chaotic twenty-three year old drug-user named Moses (Toby Wallace). Teenage defiance and a lust for life doesn’t stop the fact that Milla still has one of …

Mank (David Fincher, 2020)

Fincher’s newest feature has all the components of a film built for an Oscar: a captivating performance from Gary Oldman; sound design that transports you back to the 1940s era of Hollywood; and an insight into the birth of the historically iconic Citizen Kane. However, despite the sugar-coated looks with all the trimmings, the innards …

Make Up (Claire Oakley, 2019)

The intriguing narrative and genre-combo of Make Up creates an entertaining and thoughtful piece of work in Claire Oakley’s film debut. The horror imagery and thriller storytelling leads us down an unexpected path that has been cleverly designed to bring the audience to a discovery of character at the same point as Ruth discovers her …

Good Time (Benny and Josh Safdie, 2017)

Two brothers are separated when their bank robbery goes wrong; one lands in jail as the other navigates the manic situations he finds himself in as he tries to get his brother back, all whilst avoiding the police who are actively searching for him. Connie Nikas (Robert Pattinson) is the protective sibling of his mentally-handicapped …

Sorry We Missed You (Ken Loach, 2019)

A working-class British family starts to fall apart at the seams when parents Ricky (Kris Hitchen) and Abbie (Debbie Honeywood) begin to struggle more and more to keep financially afloat. The stress of long hours with basically zero benefits doesn't leave time for them to actually be a family to their two children, rebellious teenager …