Film Reviews

By Jim Mackney Seeing Ronald Reagan address the American from behind his desk in the Oval office is not the heart warming scene you may imagine. The image is eerie, as is the rest of The Reagan Show, a documentary that feels out of step with the world at large and feels ultimately facile. “The Reagan Show”, directed by Pacho Velez and Sierra Pettengill, is a bland film made from archive material. The film’s slim runtime of just under eighty minutes,...

Based on Tomihiko Morimi’s bestselling novel of the same name, The Night is Short, Walk on Girl takes place over a single eventful night and follows Otome as she parties, gets drunk for the first time, visits a book fair, and takes part in a university festival. All the while she is pursued by Senpai who is in love with her. Well this is at least what I thought was going on, as the erratic nature of the story makes...

By Jim Mackney Poverty, whiskey, home truths and a little bit of laughter. These fragments make up the adaptation of Jeanette Walls’ memoir, “The Glass Castle”. The film barrels along, and at a crisp 2hrs 7mins in length it doesn’t outstay its welcome. It reaches for the stars and goes for emotion in capital letters. “The Glass Castle” is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and stars, Brie Larson as Jeanette Walls and Woody Harrleson as her father, Rex Walls. The...

With its highly anticipated sequel set for release in the next couple of weeks there is no better time to see the original that lies at the heart of all the excitement. To coincide with this, as well as the 35th anniversary of its initial release, Blade Runner has been remastered and reissued in stunning 4k. As many of you will know, the story is set in 2019 where we find detective Deckard (Harrison Ford), a retired blade runner who...

“Zoology” is a film that starts off bleak but ends up becoming enchanting as it move towards its conclusion. Written and directed by Ivan I. Tverdovskiy and starring, Natalya Pavlenkova as the principal character, the story focuses on a middle-aged woman who grows a tail. This may seem like a hardship too far for many but in fact it appears to be both the best and worst thing that has ever happened to Natasha. The story is told in intimate...

“Killing Ground” is a horror film by Tasmanian born writer-director Damien Power. It is a film that takes its cues from other Australian horror cinema such as Wolf Creek and the film has tones of the low budget British horror, Eden Lake. The film focuses on Sam (Harriet Dyer) and Ian (Ian Meadows) who are on a camping trip to a remote part of the Australian outback that holds fond memories of Ian’s youth. It’s New Years Eve and the...

By Jim Mackney The Road to Mandalay is a bewitching, social-realist drama from Taiwanese film director, Midi Z. The drama focuses on Lianqing (Wu Ke-xi) and her pursuit of a better life in Bangkok. The film’s opening ten minutes portrays the first steps on her journey, including her being smuggled over the Burma/Thailand border. Initially she has only paid enough to gain a place in the boot of the truck but Guo (Kai Ko), a boy from the same Burmese district...

Filmmakers have always enjoyed bringing us unlikely love stories. Whether it is Annie Hall, Harold and Maude, Her, or even Beauty and the Beast there are plenty of films that have shown how love can blossom in the most challenging of environments and circumstances. With On Body and Soul, the latest feature from Ildikó Enyedi, we see a re-imagination of this old formulae. Set in a Budapest abattoir, On Body and Soul follows Endre (Géza Morcsányi) the financial director and...

By Michael McNulty There is little doubt that Maysaloun Hamoud’s film, In Between, is an important and ambitious debut feature. A feminist film, centring on a trio of Palestinian-Israeli women as they struggle to find a balance between the liberal lives they aspire to and the traditional culture that surrounds them. Selma (Sana Jammelieh) and Leila (Mouna Hawa) live in an apartment together in the Jaffa district of Tel-Aviv. Selma is an aspiring DJ who works a series of pick...