Film Reviews

On July 5th 1980, Björn Borg, the “Ice Man” of Sweden and the world’s highest ranked tennis player at the time, walked out onto the Centre Court of Wimbledon, hoping to win his fifth consecutive title at the All England Club. An edgy excitement arose from the crowd, yet somehow the Swede remained calm & collected as he strode onto the grass, his mind focused solely on the task at hand. The only obstacle standing is his way was John...

By Wyndham Hacket Pain  Such are the difficulties faced by young people in China jobs can be very hard to find and there has been a trend for them to seek employment within funeral homes. This strange happening was spotted by director Carol Salter and is the subject matter of her debut feature Almost Heaven. It is at one of these homes that we meet Ying Ling, a 17 year old girl who is training to be a mortician. It is...

Set in the latter years of Queen Victoria’s (Judi Dench) reign, Victoria & Abdul tells the story of her unexpected friendship with an Indian servant. Originally only meant to participate in the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Abdul (Ali Fazal) quickly becomes a devoted servant and friend of the monarch. The extended Royal Family and government are reluctant to accept the relationship, believing that it sends out the wrong message to the Empire, and do all they can to send Abdul back...

By Jim Mackney Like all good folk songs, there is darkness at the heart of Rolando Colla's new film" Seven Days" (Sette Giorni). It is set on an idyllic Sicilian island and a pair of middle-aged dreamers act like a couple of horny teenagers, with predictable complications. Throughout the film the lead characters, Ivan (Bruno Todeschini) and Chiara (Alessia Barela), attempt to figure out their feelings with a quiet determinism that remains throughout the film. Although only 97 minutes long,...

Darren Aronofsky is angry; in fact, he’s furious! Those worried that one of contemporary cinema’s foremost provoc-auteurs would be forced to temper his uncompromising artistic vision following the vitriolic outrage many levelled at his previous feature – 2014’s unfairly maligned biblical blockbuster, Noah - had nothing to fear. Indeed, if the initial reactions from the press corps in Venice are any indication, mother! may well be Aronofsky’s most divisive film to date. It’s certainly, in this critic’s eyes, one of...

By Michael McNulty A beat up car barrels down a dusty road in the remote bad-lands of rural Pakistan, a group of sweaty men, armed to the teeth, sneer as they approach an isolated house. Standing tall, proud and brandishing a Kalashnikov of her own is the young, beautiful Noza (Suhaee Abro). The men pull up and pile out, weapons drawn. They’ve come to take the home. But, Noza won’t go easy; this is her family home, her land and...

By Michael McNulty Attila Till blends fantasy and reality in his Hungarian comedy-cum-action thriller, Kills on Wheels, about a trio of wheelchair bound hit men. Zoli (Zoltán Fenyvesi) and Barba (Ádám Feteke) are best mates, both with disabilities, who live in a rehabilitation centre and who have a passion for comic books. Zoli is in urgent need of spinal corrective surgery, but his pride prevents him from accepting money from his estranged father to cover the costs. Marginalized and resigned...

Aristotle once said that “Man is a political animal”, and in British politics, few are as ferocious as Dennis Skinner. Dubbed the ‘Beast of Bolsover’, referring to the constituency that he has represented in Parliament since 1970, Skinner is a renowned socialist, trade unionist, and Labour politician; a man both loved and loathed by members of the House. This absorbing documentary from first-time filmmaker Daniel Draper may not be a particularly comprehensive study of Skinner’s political ideology, but it is...

It’s a story so strange that surely it must be a work of fiction. Back in 2010, former art dealer and eccentric millionaire Forrest Fenn purported to hide a cache filled with gold and jewels worth over a million dollars somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, offering those who wished to find the treasure a series of cryptic clues that he claimed would lead them to its location. Seven years on, and still no one has succeeded in finding the loot....