Film

By Anna Power, Film Editor Update Tuesday 23rd Dec: Sony in another U-turn have decided to release The Interview on December 25th. Bowing to presidential and public opinion the company have decided to go ahead with the release but to a limited theatrical audience.  Sony have announced that they are planning a simultaneous VOD release though they have yet to name the online streaming service.  UPDATE: CNN reports that Sony has now pulled the Christmas Day release of The Interview after...

By Stephen Mayne @finalreel It’s been thirteen years since Peter Jackson and his team first introduced their vision of Middle Earth to us. Now it looks like they’ve finally left the stage they borrowed from Tolkien and made their own. The Battle of the Five Armies proves a fitting conclusion, a gaudy exercise in excess that revels in all the strengths and weaknesses of its two predecessors. Jackson’s instincts were always right. This is the story of Thorin and Bilbo,...

By Emma Silverthorn @HouseOf_Gazelle The cast and crew of Unbroken couldn’t be much more stellar; with Angela Jolie directing, the Coen brothers adapting Lauren Hilldenbrand’s memoir of Louis Zamperini’s life into the screenplay, and the exceptional Jack O’Connell in lead. O’Connell lives up to the hype that’s been surrounding him of late, and though he’s received some critical acknowledgement since 2007’s Skins, this is surely his breakthrough role. The film doesn’t disappoint in terms of delivering a gripping, emotive and...

By Sam Inglis  @24fpsuk  I'm not sure that many documentaries are naturally suited to the cinema. Their stories are often big, but all too frequently the visual treatment of them seems small. The Green Prince proves no exception in this respect. Mosab Hassan Yousef has lived a fascinating life. He's the eldest son of Hassan Yousef, one of the founders of Hamas, and as such he was brought up in a radical family and in a movement that has sanctioned...

By Matt Mansfield  ‪@mattmansfield_ "We Tibetans are funny," says artist Tenzing Rigdol near the beginning of Tenzin Tsetan Choklay's documentary Bringing Tibet Home. "When people ask 'are you Chinese?' you feel unhappy, but when people ask 'are you Japanese?', you feel great". Cultural identity is the driving force behind the artist's work, and Choklay's film documents the creation of his biggest piece yet: Our Land, Our People, an installation intended to give the thousands of Tibetans living in exile in...

By Emma Silverthorn @HouseOf_Gazelle Director Bryn Higgins and writer Joe Fisher’s tale, (adapted from Ray Robinson’s novel of the same name), of a young woman’s struggle with epilepsy and a less than salubrious background is in many ways admirable. It is beautifully shot, features some interesting relationship dynamics and focuses on an neurological disorder that rarely receives creative coverage however the occasionally hackneyed script and not entirely convincing performance from lead Agyness Deyn lets the film down somewhat. More convincing...

By James Mackney @JimMackney Open Bethlehem is as much Leila Sansour’s film as it is Bethlehem’s. It chronicles Leila’s mission to ensure that Bethlehem is a free and open city and not one at the whim of Israeli pressure. Leila herself left Palestine and Bethlehem at age 18 and returned several years later to film this documentary however the documentary states that her family is depleting around her. They are feeling the pressures of the regime that is keeping Palestine...

By Sam Inglis @24FPSUK 24fps.org.uk School of Babel is inescapably political. It doesn’t feel like it is hectoring you with its viewpoint, but it is impossible to watch it without viewing it through the prism of the controversial discussion around immigration, multiculturalism and integration and you won't be in doubt what the film's view is by the end. The film takes place almost entirely in the reception class of a French junior high school, with pupils aged between 11 and...

By Emma Silverthorn @Houseof_Gazelle Simulating the lifestyle of a bonobo ape has its attractions. The bonobo, our closest living relative, are compassionate, free-loving animals who very rarely experience conflict; when problems do arise amongst them the bonobo’s quickly diffuse them with bouts of promiscuous sexual activity. The species is a vision of sixties counterculture utopia and the ripe inspiration for Matthew Hammet Knott’s first feature length film. In the Dorset countryside, magnetic Anita (wonderfully played by Josie Lawrence) has formed...