New Movies

By Leslie Byron Pitt/@afrofilmviewer The French original 2008 version of Martyrs is reminiscent of the delightful internet meme: Honey Badger don’t care. It is a relentless beast of a horror film. Fully assured of its nihilism and unrepentant on who knows it.  A force of nature that wasn’t for everyone, but turned those who were with it into devout followers. Now in 2016, America comes forth with a remake of Pascal Laugier brutal exercise. Feature one would liken more towards...

By Leslie Byron Pitt/@Afrofilmviewer Seth Rogan’s Christmas comedy the night before runs on a very defined “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” rule. This adult x-mas yarn has Rogan playing side kick (along with Anthony Mackie) to Joseph Gorden-Levitt’s Ethan, whose quest to find and enjoy New York’s dopest secret festive party, plays off very much in the way that you would expect it to. With varying results. There isn’t that much to expect and little to say about...

Review by Michael Ewins/@E_Film_Blog Over guttural bass and wobbly drum loops spill a barrage of localized sprechgesang, and from the other side of the pit, stomping boots and tributes of spit. This is what a Sleaford Mods gig sounds like - intoxicated, caustic, and very funny. But a Sleaford Mods gig is also what punk looks like in 2016, and it's not what you expect - disco lights, a laptop, and one bloke in a polo shirt flailing around as...

Review by Leslie Byron Pitt/@Afrofilmviewer The TV plays and we hear of a kidnapped boy (Jaeden Lieberher). We see a faded image of the kidnapper (Michael Shannon), then we see the man himself. He says little, but his expression speaks emphatically.  Quietly intense and driven. The boy is sitting on a hotel bed. Reading comics with googles on. The googles are deceptive. It would be easy to consider them as an item of childhood comfort. He doesn’t appear scared, nor...

by Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada “The Right to Happiness”, this year’s Berlinale motto, is clearly linked to the one most talked about topic in the German media this year: Refugees. Donation boxes for the Berlin Centre for Torture Victims in every cinema, various programmes to help refugees in Berlin, from free tickets to school projects to traineeships, are the concrete ways the Berlinale participates in the effort to welcome refugees. Even George Clooney, star of the opening film “Hail, Caesar!”, has...

Reviewed by Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada Kate and Justin are expecting their first child when new neighbours move into the downstairs flat of their converted terraced house. The new couple, Theresa  (Laura Birn) and Jon, are also expecting a child. While Theresa is full of joy at the prospect of being a mother, Kate (Clémence Poésy) is insecure and fearful about her ability to cope with the responsibility for a child. She quickly warms to the outgoing Theresa and a friendship...

Review and round table interview with director Morgan Neville by Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada After meeting world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and succumbing to his charm, documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville set out to document his ensemble of musicians from around the world, playing traditional instruments of their home countries, and morphing all these different traditions together to make something entirely new. Yo-Yo Ma's charm is hard not to succumb to, and Neville's storytelling is as light-footed, smooth and masterful as in his...

Reviewed by Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada Spike Lee's latest, the hip-hop musical Chi-Raq, re-interprets the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes: Lystistrata is a beautiful woman who helps end a war by convincing every woman in town to go on a sex-strike until the men stop battling and sign a peace contract. Spike Lee transfers the story from Ancient Greece to modern-day Chicago, called Chi-Raq because more Americans have been murdered there than have died in the Iraq war in the...

Interview by Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada Nakom is a tiny village in northern Ghana. Iddrisu, a talented medical student, has to return there after the sudden death of his father. He has to face the expectations of responsibility for his family, and his new life in the city slips further and further away from him. Through his story, Nakom tells the story of daily life in a remote village, the challenges of preserving traditional life in modern times, the conflict of...