Category Archives: Film
Film
Human intimacy, or the lack thereof: Shame
Directed by Steve McQueen (no, not the dead actor), Shame is a film that could only have been conceived of in the last few years. Its subject is human intimacy, or rather the lack thereof in an age of ever-expanding technological immediacy. Brandon, played by Michael Fassbender, … Read more
Film
High-stakes verité: Andrew Haigh’s Weekend
There’s a scene early in Andrew Haigh’s Weekend in which Russell (Tom Cullen), a handsome, semi-closeted gay man, patrols the local indoor swimming pool where he works. He plods around the pool perimeter and then looks on pensively from the lifeguard’s chair while a younger guy playfully … Read more
Film
What do you want to do for the rest of your life? Miranda July’s The Future
In her various incarnations as screenwriter, fiction writer and artist, Miranda July has demonstrated a preoccupation with the less-trodden paths of human connection. Take her debut film, Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), which saw a middle-aged man kick off a sexual relationship with two … Read more
Film
What do you want to do for the rest of your life? Miranda July’s The Future
In her various incarnations as screenwriter, fiction writer and artist, Miranda July has demonstrated a preoccupation with the less-trodden paths of human connection. Take her debut film, Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), which saw a middle-aged man kick off a sexual relationship with two … Read more
Film
Subvert Normality: Three of my favourite teen rebellion films
From the iconic Rebel Without a Cause (1955) to the disquieting Christiane F. (1981) or Tony Richardson’s tremendously austere Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), there is certainly no shortage of filmic portrayals concerning the latent indignation of wayward youth. These films – visually rich, compelling … Read more
Film
‘You transfix me, quite’: late thoughts on Jane Eyre
The transposition of a novel to screen always has an odd effect, like seeing a painted portrait move. There’s the vexed question of whether to judge the film on its own merits or in the fidelity to which it accurately translates the essence of the tale, especially … Read more
Film, News
Bait: Bret Easton Ellis jumps the shark?
Bret Easton Ellis is reportedly working on a screenplay for a shark horror film. The Guardian and various film sites have reported this week that Ellis is collaborating with Paul Schrader (the screenwriter of such films as Taxi Driver and Raging Bull) on a shark-infested psychological horror … Read more
Film
Review: Barney’s Version
At first glance Barney’s Version appears to be a cynical comic reply to the false promises of Hollywood romance narratives. A crude, brash and at times grotesque Barney Panofsky (played by Paul Giamatti) takes the viewer through his three failed marriages and the unsolved disappearance of his … Read more
Film
A symbolic moment of social and artistic upheaval: Howl
In 1955 Allen Ginsberg read his then unpublished poem Howl to an audience including Jack Kerouac at the Six Gallery in San Francisco. It was, in retrospect, a symbolic moment of social and artistic upheaval: for the first time, the dislocation and unease that young post-World War … Read more
Film
Review: The Hedgehog
The Hedgehog is French director Mona Achache’s first feature film and is an impressive debut. Adapted for the screen by Achache and based on the internationally acclaimed novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, it is a darkly comic and poignant tale about class, misrecognition … Read more
