Creativity and Culture. All rights in film images are reserved by the filmmakers. Words are my own.
Clint Eastwood directs and stars in High Plains Drifter, a no-nonsense Western about an anti-hero. The film is focused on a small town in the American Frontier with all the usual personnel; a priest, a barber, a sheriff. The protagonist, an unnamed drifter (Eastwood), rolls into town one day for a drink at the bar and… Continue reading Film Review | High Plains Drifter
Escape from New York is something of an oddity. It appears, from its title and poster, as if it's a blockbuster action movie. In actuality, it's a relatively low-budget passion project and it's about as "auteur" as it gets. It's John Carpenter doing his thing in a DIY, "indie" style, and it has his stamp all… Continue reading Film Review | Escape from New York
Malcolm McDowell offers a manic and bold performance in this otherwise messy and bloated historical drama-porno blend. Caligula follows the titular young emperor of Rome as he ascends the throne of the Republic. His Rome is one bathed in hedonism and wealth, and under his unfettered power he further degenerates it into one of debauchery. The backdrop… Continue reading Film Review | Caligula
Midnight Cowboy is a scuzzy and sleazy look at 1960s New York City. It stands out amongst films of its time because it shines a light on poverty and hopelessness, and yes, the fallacy of the American Dream. The title character, Joe Buck, is played naively by Jon Voight. He moves from small town Texas to… Continue reading Film Review | Midnight Cowboy
Tokyo-Ga is at once a travel diary and an ode by one filmmaker to another. In it, Wim Wenders travels to Tokyo to see first-hand the home and film subject of one of his most beloved and revered film directors, the late Yasujirō Ozu. Wenders indulges his curiosity by visiting Pachinko parlours, a pinball-like game… Continue reading Film Review | Tokyo-Ga
Social realism by way of eighties Helsinki; Shadows in Paradise is early, yet masterful Aki Kaurismäki. The film follows Nikander, a garbage collector, as he goes about his day-to-day life, which is as dull as you might expect. He works in a two-man team (under his superior), traveling the city and taking in the trash. By night,… Continue reading Film Review | Shadows in Paradise
What a title; and yes, literally, the title, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It's phonetically satisfying to read, and as a title of a motion picture, implies terror, gore, and revulsion. And The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has the three in droves. It's a film that suggests it's based on true events, something that was later revealed to… Continue reading Film Review | The Texas Chain Saw Massacre [1974]
Vampire's Kiss is the ultimate Nicolas Cage film, and a bizarre, surreal and hilarious horror-comedy. It's a film about a yuppie; Peter Loew (Cage) in late eighties New York City, single and rich, and mentally unhinged. His time is divided between working as an executive in his literary agency, nights on the town, and trips to… Continue reading Film Review | Vampire’s Kiss
La Haine is a bold and fierce film about social and racial injustice in nineties Paris. Released in 1995, it was celebrated on release and has rightfully gone on to be lauded as a modern classic. The film follows three friends from different ethnic backgrounds - Jewish, African, and Arabic - in a Parisian banlieue, the day after… Continue reading Film Review | La Haine
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]
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