Creativity and Culture. All rights in film images are reserved by the filmmakers. Words are my own.
Ben Mullinkosson's The Last Year of Darkness is an intimate and vibrant documentary-exposé on nightlife subculture in Chengdu, China. The title, ostensibly, refers to the film's central nightclub, Funky Town, in which drag artists, DJs and outcasts gather to drink and smoke copiously. The Last Year of Darkness is a celebration of what happens when… Continue reading Film Review | The Last Year of Darkness
Dune is a mess. It's a grandiose, Hollywood-backed epic with auteur David Lynch at the helm, so the stage should have been set for science fiction greatness. But therein lies the problem. Lynch had come off making the surrealist, art-house portraits Eraserhead and The Elephant Man, and ostensibly had his mind set on something greater. Frank Herbert's 1965 science… Continue reading Film Review | Dune [1984]
Monster is a dense and complex drama by Hirokazu Kore-eda that serves to explore contemporary Japan through the eyes of a mother, her son, and the boy's teacher in an entwined triptych. The film opens with a burning building in the centre of town, lighting up the dead of night. Whilst people take notice and observe,… Continue reading Film Review | Monster
Perfect Days is a film about the beautiful everyday, captured precisely and artfully by veteran director Wim Wenders. Kōji Yakusho stars as Hirayama, a middle-aged janitor in Tokyo. He lives in a tiny apartment furnished with little other than his bed, some plants, and rows of books and cassette tapes of 70s and 80s rock. Every morning,… Continue reading Film Review | Perfect Days
Class of Nuke 'Em High is a zany Eighties gross-out comedy-horror about a high school that gets polluted with toxic waste from the neighbouring nuclear facility. In other words, it's something that came straight off Troma Entertainment's production line. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. If you happen to be in the mood for… Continue reading Film Review | Class of Nuke ‘Em High
Blade Runner is visual perfection, with emphasis on the visual. Whilst it's subjective to a degree, this is genuinely is one of the best looking two hours of film ever produced. Dark, decaying urban environments steeped in human history collide with high-tech electric modernity. Steam billows from the ground and the atmosphere is awash with rain.… Continue reading Film Review | Blade Runner
A sad and thought-provoking film about loneliness and non-acceptance. All of Us Strangers is, in essence, a portrait of a man (Adam, played by Andrew Scott) who has moved to London from the suburbs, and in so doing has left his family and known life behind. The narrative is bolstered by two main themes; the protagonist’s loneliness spurring… Continue reading Film Review | All of Us Strangers
Saltburn could have been great. It's a film about an Oxford University student (Barry Keoghan) who befriends an upper class, wealthy fellow student (Jacob Elordi) and is invited to stay at his family's huge county house, Saltburn. A fine premise for a dark comedy-cum-psychological thriller, and the leads play their parts very well. Elordi is suitably… Continue reading Film Review | Saltburn
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