The deal will also see titles from Dogwoof’s back catalogue appear on the service.
UK distributor and documentary specialist Dogwoof has struck a deal to release new acquisitions and titles from its back catalogue on VoD streaming service Wuaki.tv.
The first film to be released under the agreement will be Michael Moore’s travelogue documentary Where To Invade Next, which premiered at Toronto last year.
Around 20 titles from Dogwoof’s back catalogue will also go on the service, including Oscar-nominated duo Cartel Land and The Acting Of Killing, BAFTA-nominated Blackfish, and fashion doc Dior and I.
Barcelona-based Wuaki.tv is a VoD service that offers film and TV rental and purchase as well as, exclusively in Spain, a subscription service. The company operates in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg and is continuing its roll-out across the EU.
The deal was signed between Dogwoof’s head of home entertainment...
UK distributor and documentary specialist Dogwoof has struck a deal to release new acquisitions and titles from its back catalogue on VoD streaming service Wuaki.tv.
The first film to be released under the agreement will be Michael Moore’s travelogue documentary Where To Invade Next, which premiered at Toronto last year.
Around 20 titles from Dogwoof’s back catalogue will also go on the service, including Oscar-nominated duo Cartel Land and The Acting Of Killing, BAFTA-nominated Blackfish, and fashion doc Dior and I.
Barcelona-based Wuaki.tv is a VoD service that offers film and TV rental and purchase as well as, exclusively in Spain, a subscription service. The company operates in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg and is continuing its roll-out across the EU.
The deal was signed between Dogwoof’s head of home entertainment...
- 7/29/2016
- ScreenDaily
Titles will include Michael Moore’s Where To Invade Next.
Network’s sales division has struck a deal to represent the home entertainment rights to Dogwoof and Peccadillo Pictures titles.
Network will start repping Peccadillo titles from July 1 and Dogwoof films after Aug 1.
Network currently represents its own catalogue of titles as well as labels including Medium Rare, Fabulous Films and WWE.
Claire Bailey, Network’s head of sales, said: “We’re thrilled to welcome Dogwoof and Peccadillo Pictures to Network and start working on an incredible array of titles from both labels, comprising an already established catalogue and some very exciting new releases.”
Daniel Green, home entertainment manager at Dogwoof, added: “Network’s fresh approach to the ever-changing market consistently proves the value of home entertainment, and it’s just one of the many reasons why we’re looking forward to working together.”
“We’ve had a fantastic year so far with the release of [link...
Network’s sales division has struck a deal to represent the home entertainment rights to Dogwoof and Peccadillo Pictures titles.
Network will start repping Peccadillo titles from July 1 and Dogwoof films after Aug 1.
Network currently represents its own catalogue of titles as well as labels including Medium Rare, Fabulous Films and WWE.
Claire Bailey, Network’s head of sales, said: “We’re thrilled to welcome Dogwoof and Peccadillo Pictures to Network and start working on an incredible array of titles from both labels, comprising an already established catalogue and some very exciting new releases.”
Daniel Green, home entertainment manager at Dogwoof, added: “Network’s fresh approach to the ever-changing market consistently proves the value of home entertainment, and it’s just one of the many reasons why we’re looking forward to working together.”
“We’ve had a fantastic year so far with the release of [link...
- 6/27/2016
- ScreenDaily
Documentary picked up an Oscar nomination last week.
Cartel Land, the Oscar and BAFTA-nominated documentary about two vigilante groups who tackle murderous Mexican drug cartels, has topped the doc charts in Argentina, Columbia, Mexico and Paraguay simultaneously on iTunes.
Dogwoof, the film’s international sales agent and UK distributor, launched the film on iTunes on Jan 15 across 17 Latin American countries - including Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Columbia, Paraguay, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela.
Cartel Land director Matthew Heineman said: “It was always incredibly important to me that the film reach audiences throughout Latin America, especially Mexico.
“I made Cartel Land to give voice to those trapped by senseless cycles of violence, suffering and corruption. I’m grateful for the response we’ve received thus far and I hope that - through these new distribution channels - we will continue the conversation.”
Daniel Green, home entertainment sales manager at Dogwoof, said the documentary “marks one of our first ventures...
Cartel Land, the Oscar and BAFTA-nominated documentary about two vigilante groups who tackle murderous Mexican drug cartels, has topped the doc charts in Argentina, Columbia, Mexico and Paraguay simultaneously on iTunes.
Dogwoof, the film’s international sales agent and UK distributor, launched the film on iTunes on Jan 15 across 17 Latin American countries - including Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Columbia, Paraguay, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela.
Cartel Land director Matthew Heineman said: “It was always incredibly important to me that the film reach audiences throughout Latin America, especially Mexico.
“I made Cartel Land to give voice to those trapped by senseless cycles of violence, suffering and corruption. I’m grateful for the response we’ve received thus far and I hope that - through these new distribution channels - we will continue the conversation.”
Daniel Green, home entertainment sales manager at Dogwoof, said the documentary “marks one of our first ventures...
- 1/20/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Happy New Year and a warm welcome to 2014! The last twelve months have offered up some mighty fine works to suit all cinematic tastes, from barn-storming Hollywood blockbusters such as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Star Trek Into Darkness to pioneering arthouse efforts such as Abdellatif Kechice's Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing and Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty. But what does 2014 have in store aside from the usual slew of superhero movies and tent-pole titans? Below, CineVue's Daniel Green, Patrick Gamble and Ben Nicholson pick a handful of their own personal must-sees. Don't forget to give us your own selections via the comment box provided.
- 1/1/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Ryan Ferguson was released from prison on Nov. 12, after spending 10 years behind bars for murder. His charges have been overturned.
Ryan Ferguson, 29, is “ready for anything” now, after spending ten years in prison for the murder of Kent Heitholt, a Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor — a crime he never committed.
Ryan Ferguson Free
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced on Nov. 12 that Ryan would not be retried, and was free. He was released around 6 p.m.
In 2004, Ryan was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison, after being charged with the murder of his fellow student. During the original trial, Chuck Erickson, one of Ryan’s classmates, told the jury that together, they did murder Kent in the parking lot of the newspaper on Halloween night in 2001.
Jerry Trump, a janitor at the Tribune added that he had seen Ryan and Chuck in the parking lot that night. While none...
Ryan Ferguson, 29, is “ready for anything” now, after spending ten years in prison for the murder of Kent Heitholt, a Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor — a crime he never committed.
Ryan Ferguson Free
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced on Nov. 12 that Ryan would not be retried, and was free. He was released around 6 p.m.
In 2004, Ryan was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison, after being charged with the murder of his fellow student. During the original trial, Chuck Erickson, one of Ryan’s classmates, told the jury that together, they did murder Kent in the parking lot of the newspaper on Halloween night in 2001.
Jerry Trump, a janitor at the Tribune added that he had seen Ryan and Chuck in the parking lot that night. While none...
- 11/13/2013
- by Emily Longeretta
- HollywoodLife
★★★☆☆ Whilst never quite reaching the compelling heights of recent rockumentary offerings Beware of Mr. Baker, Crossfire Hurricane or Searching for Sugar Man, Greg Camalier's Sundance select Muscle Shoals (2013) succeeds in cogently relaying the star-studded history of the now iconic Alabama recording studio in question. Under the tutelage of founder Rick Hall, Fame Studios was responsible for laying down classic recordings from a whole raft of RnB and rock artists, many of whom (those still in the land of the living, at least) providing candid interviews on their time in the presence of the "Muscle Shoals sound".
Situated on the muddy banks of the winding Tennessee River, the city of Muscle Shoals proved the unlikely breeding ground for some of America's best and most memorable music produced between the years 1969 and 1984. Receiving spiritual guidance from the "Singing River" (as the departed Native Americans once knew it), Muscle Shoals played its part...
Situated on the muddy banks of the winding Tennessee River, the city of Muscle Shoals proved the unlikely breeding ground for some of America's best and most memorable music produced between the years 1969 and 1984. Receiving spiritual guidance from the "Singing River" (as the departed Native Americans once knew it), Muscle Shoals played its part...
- 10/24/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ The first British director to open the London Film Festival since Kevin Macdonald back in 2006, Paul Greengrass shakes off the memories of Jason Bourne with new nail-biter Captain Phillips (2013), a true story of piracy and stoic heroism on the high seas off the African mainland. Starring Tom Hanks as the captain in question and based upon the 2009 Somali pirate hijacking of the Mv Maersk Alabama, Greengrass' latest is a baggy but brutal thriller, leading its audience on a marathon tightrope walk across shark-infested waters. Bolstered by a fine central performance from its star, this is gun-toting vérité at close to its very best.
Leaving his wife Andrea (a fleeting Catherine Keener) and unseen children for another long stint working abroad, Captain Richard Phillips (Hanks) jets off to Oman to pilot the Alabama as its commanding officer, leading it through the treacherous international waters off the Somali coast. Boarded by pirate...
Leaving his wife Andrea (a fleeting Catherine Keener) and unseen children for another long stint working abroad, Captain Richard Phillips (Hanks) jets off to Oman to pilot the Alabama as its commanding officer, leading it through the treacherous international waters off the Somali coast. Boarded by pirate...
- 10/21/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ The flagship restoration of this year's London Film Festival Archive strand, Captain John Noel's The Epic of Everest (1924) is both a spirited log of grand adventure and a sombre testament to the lives lost during a treacherous third attempt to scale the great Himalayan peak. Featuring a new score from Simon Fisher Turner (who also worked on 2011's Great White Silence rejuvenation, again with the BFI), Noel's masterwork is a remarkable feat of filmmaking, shot as it was on specially adapted cameras in the harshest of conditions, but to this day remains both entertaining and surprisingly spiritual.
Having already measured up Everest whilst on leave from his Indian regiment in 1913, Captain Noel was an individual consumed with adoration for the monolithic centrepiece of the Himalayas. It wasn't until 1919, however, Noel first publicly suggested that mountain be scaled, a challenge met in 1920. Though no moving images are known to exist of the first 1921 expedition,...
Having already measured up Everest whilst on leave from his Indian regiment in 1913, Captain Noel was an individual consumed with adoration for the monolithic centrepiece of the Himalayas. It wasn't until 1919, however, Noel first publicly suggested that mountain be scaled, a challenge met in 1920. Though no moving images are known to exist of the first 1921 expedition,...
- 10/21/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ British comic actor Richard Ayoade grabbed the attention of the UK industry back in 2010 with feature debut Submarine, a sharp, cineliterate adaptation of the Joe Dunthorne novel of the same name. His follow-up, The Double (2013), is once again based upon a literary source, this time taking its inspiration from Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky's dystopian doppelgänger novella. With Craig Roberts relegated to a cameo appearance this time around - along with a veritable host of Ayoade's contemporaries - The Social Network star Jesse Eisenberg takes the role of weedy office clerk Simon and his double, James.
Transporting the 19th century Russian narrative of Dostoyevsky's text to a warped, alternative version of post-war America, we follow Eisenberg's Simon as he struggles daily to establish himself as more than just a faceless cog in the administrative machine. Forced to sign in each and every day at work due to the...
Transporting the 19th century Russian narrative of Dostoyevsky's text to a warped, alternative version of post-war America, we follow Eisenberg's Simon as he struggles daily to establish himself as more than just a faceless cog in the administrative machine. Forced to sign in each and every day at work due to the...
- 10/15/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆
Sound and vision combine to momentous effect in Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity (2013), a grand technical touchstone that the next generation of CGI-reliant blockbusters could and should be measured against. Fortunately, Cuarón's latest also proves to be more than just a 'look-at-me' tech demo for computer-generated visual advancement, grounded as it is by a winning central performance from Sandra Bullock as a Major Tom wannabe adrift and alone in Earth's orbit. Like Ang Lee's Life of Pi, Gravity blends arthouse sensibilities with big budget polish, whilst perhaps never quite being as stirring for the mind as it is for the senses.
Beginning with a routine space walk as a team of astronauts repair a malfunctioning satellite, we're quickly introduced to our small cast of characters - among them Bullock's Dr. Ryan Stone and George Clooney's smooth-talking Matt Kowalski. It's not long, however, until events take a sudden turn for the...
Sound and vision combine to momentous effect in Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity (2013), a grand technical touchstone that the next generation of CGI-reliant blockbusters could and should be measured against. Fortunately, Cuarón's latest also proves to be more than just a 'look-at-me' tech demo for computer-generated visual advancement, grounded as it is by a winning central performance from Sandra Bullock as a Major Tom wannabe adrift and alone in Earth's orbit. Like Ang Lee's Life of Pi, Gravity blends arthouse sensibilities with big budget polish, whilst perhaps never quite being as stirring for the mind as it is for the senses.
Beginning with a routine space walk as a team of astronauts repair a malfunctioning satellite, we're quickly introduced to our small cast of characters - among them Bullock's Dr. Ryan Stone and George Clooney's smooth-talking Matt Kowalski. It's not long, however, until events take a sudden turn for the...
- 10/10/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ The spirit of Godard's 1967 classic Le Weekend lives on in Roger Michell's playful Le Week-End (2013), a Before-style tale of an ageing British couple looking to jump-start their ailing marriage on a break to Paris - the immortal ville lumière. Starring Jim Broadbent and a memorable Lindsay Duncan as the prickly pair in question, Michell does much here to get himself back on track after the supremely maudlin Hyde Park on Hudson (2012), fleshing out protagonists Nick and Meg as believable bickerers on the brink of boredom and subsequent separation. Though hardly new ground, such marital strife does prove rich pickings.
Taking a well-earned break from their respective careers and demanding adult son, Nick (Broadbent) and Meg (Duncan) hop on the Eurostar to the French capital to celebrate their wedding anniversary. However, upon arrival it soon becomes clear that trouble has begun to infiltrate paradise, with the pair sniping ruthlessly at...
Taking a well-earned break from their respective careers and demanding adult son, Nick (Broadbent) and Meg (Duncan) hop on the Eurostar to the French capital to celebrate their wedding anniversary. However, upon arrival it soon becomes clear that trouble has begun to infiltrate paradise, with the pair sniping ruthlessly at...
- 10/8/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ Having followed in the pioneering wake of Ben Wheatley's A Field in England with a day and date cross-platform theatrical/digital-only UK release, Leslye Headland's gloriously catty Bachelorette (2012) was predictably marketed as a Bridesmaids-style, female-centric comedy. However, whilst the latter is certainly true, this is a far edgier offering than Paul Fieg's 2011 crowd-pleaser, reuniting a quartet of high school pals (the 'Bitch Faces') for the bachelorette party and subsequent wedding of one of their number. Cruel, callous and cutting, Bachelorette's best laughs come from the resurgence of petty past grievances.
The first of the foursome to marry, Becky (Rebel Wilson) invites her former high school clique to celebrate her impending union with strapping sweetheart Dale (Hayes MacArthur). First to accept is highly-strung maid of honour Regan (Kirsten Dunst), with La waster Gena (Lizzy Caplan) and party girl Katie (Isla Fisher) also accepting the chance to get loaded at their friend's expense.
The first of the foursome to marry, Becky (Rebel Wilson) invites her former high school clique to celebrate her impending union with strapping sweetheart Dale (Hayes MacArthur). First to accept is highly-strung maid of honour Regan (Kirsten Dunst), with La waster Gena (Lizzy Caplan) and party girl Katie (Isla Fisher) also accepting the chance to get loaded at their friend's expense.
- 10/7/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ Apocalyptic teen angst is the order of the day in Kevin Macdonald's limp and languid How I Live Now (2013), a functional - if uninspiring - adaptation of the 2004 Meg Rosoff novel of the same name. Starring Saoirse Ronan as the American relative of a rurally-situated British family, the film sees our green and pleasant land under attack from an unknown foe, commencing with a catastrophic nuclear strike on London. Though such subject matter may sound provocative on paper (indeed, Rosoff's text is highly regarded), Macdonald's big screen translation is too dour and generic to ever truly capture the imagination.
Kitted out in leather and shades, Daisy (Ronan) arrives in the UK at a time of unclarified unrest. Picked up from the airport by 14-year-old Isaac (Tom Holland), she's soon introduced to her English aunt (Anna Chancellor) and fellow cousins, including Edmond (George MacKay, seen again this week in two...
Kitted out in leather and shades, Daisy (Ronan) arrives in the UK at a time of unclarified unrest. Picked up from the airport by 14-year-old Isaac (Tom Holland), she's soon introduced to her English aunt (Anna Chancellor) and fellow cousins, including Edmond (George MacKay, seen again this week in two...
- 10/6/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆
Based on the popular song of the same name by C. W. McCall (yes, really), Hollywood hell-raiser Sam Peckinpah's Convoy (1978) gets an unexpected DVD and Blu-ray rerelease this week through StudioCanal, presumably opening up this kitsch cult truck-a-long to a slightly wider - and younger - demographic. Starring Kris Kristofferson as the ridiculously monikered Martin 'Rubber Duck' Penwald, Ali MacGraw as his 'girl', Melissa, and the late Ernest Borgnine as pantomime villain Sheriff Lyle 'Cottonmouth' Wallace, there's more than a dusting of camp kudos to this throwaway guilty pleasure.
As foreshadowed in McCall's seventies pop hit, Convoy follows an enormous, snaking congregation of dust-raising truckers as they heads for the State line following a diner brawl with the dastardly Sheriff Lyle and his posse of slimy cronies. Led by legendary road warrior 'Rubber Duck' (a particularly blue-eyed Kristofferson), this vast mobile army gather together in protest against local police corruption and trucker persecution,...
Based on the popular song of the same name by C. W. McCall (yes, really), Hollywood hell-raiser Sam Peckinpah's Convoy (1978) gets an unexpected DVD and Blu-ray rerelease this week through StudioCanal, presumably opening up this kitsch cult truck-a-long to a slightly wider - and younger - demographic. Starring Kris Kristofferson as the ridiculously monikered Martin 'Rubber Duck' Penwald, Ali MacGraw as his 'girl', Melissa, and the late Ernest Borgnine as pantomime villain Sheriff Lyle 'Cottonmouth' Wallace, there's more than a dusting of camp kudos to this throwaway guilty pleasure.
As foreshadowed in McCall's seventies pop hit, Convoy follows an enormous, snaking congregation of dust-raising truckers as they heads for the State line following a diner brawl with the dastardly Sheriff Lyle and his posse of slimy cronies. Led by legendary road warrior 'Rubber Duck' (a particularly blue-eyed Kristofferson), this vast mobile army gather together in protest against local police corruption and trucker persecution,...
- 10/1/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ An obnoxious, Michael Moore-aping battle cry against big industry and its ties to climate change denial, Craig Scott Rosebraugh's subtly titled Greedy Lying Bastards (2012) may have the very best of intentions, but fails to hold interest due to its fragmented structure and lack of cold, hard figures. It quickly becomes difficult to separate fact from opinion, culminating in a doc far less provocative than Al Gore's The Inconvenient Truth, Jeff Orlowski's superb Chasing Ice and other films of that ilk. "It's time to really hit these bastards where it hurts," Rosebraugh proclaims - something this petty offering fails to do.
Greedy Lying Bastards sets out to castigate the seemingly reprehensible individuals and organisations responsible for spreading doubt and mistrust on the climate change issue, predominantly through right-wing media sympathisers including - of course - Fox News. With his targets encompassing the Koch Brothers and ExxonMobil, as well...
Greedy Lying Bastards sets out to castigate the seemingly reprehensible individuals and organisations responsible for spreading doubt and mistrust on the climate change issue, predominantly through right-wing media sympathisers including - of course - Fox News. With his targets encompassing the Koch Brothers and ExxonMobil, as well...
- 9/27/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ The latest work from German auteur Douglas Sirk to get the Masters of Cinema treatment (following the rerelease of The Tarnished Angels earlier this month), 1958's A Time to Love and a Time to Die is remarkable not only for its sympathetic portrayal of disheartened and disenfranchised German soldiers towards the end of the Second World War, but also for its fine blend of sharp humour and sweeping CinemaScope melodrama. Starring John Gavin and Liselotte Pulver as the lovestruck Ernst Gräber and beautiful Hamburg resident Elisabeth, this is Sirk at the height of his Hollywood power.
Returning home to the burnt-out remnants of Hamburg after several long, cold years on the Russian-German Front, Gavin's square-jawed Gräber comes back to a city in ruins. With his parents' apartment block completely destroyed by enemy bombing raids, Gräber frantically searches the note-littered wall of the district to find some trace of his beloved family.
Returning home to the burnt-out remnants of Hamburg after several long, cold years on the Russian-German Front, Gavin's square-jawed Gräber comes back to a city in ruins. With his parents' apartment block completely destroyed by enemy bombing raids, Gräber frantically searches the note-littered wall of the district to find some trace of his beloved family.
- 9/24/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ The very fact that the lead star of Vince Woods' hardboiled, alternative seventies crime drama Harrigan - British actor Stephen Tompkinson - is best-known for his work in several prime-time TV dramas gives a fair indication of the scale of this low-budget first feature. That's not to say that Woods lacks ambition; Harrigan is, for the most part, a serviceable genre piece that skews history for its own means, creating a northern dystopia rife with criminality and racial distrust. Unfortunately, such world-building exercises often require a certain level of funding, and there's something undeniably televisual about proceedings.
Following an ill-fated stint fighting corruption in British-held Hong Kong, self-styled detective Harrigan (Tompkinson) returns home to Newcastle to find not only the city but the entire country up to its neck in economic woe and social disorder. As the maverick cop rejoins his former constabulary, he finds the force on its...
Following an ill-fated stint fighting corruption in British-held Hong Kong, self-styled detective Harrigan (Tompkinson) returns home to Newcastle to find not only the city but the entire country up to its neck in economic woe and social disorder. As the maverick cop rejoins his former constabulary, he finds the force on its...
- 9/24/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ British director Sean Ellis (Cashback, The Broken) swaps the comfortable environs of good ol' Blighty for the mean streets of the Filipino capital with Metro Manila (2013), a sincere if somewhat inconsequential portrayal of one family's beleaguered existence within the sprawling metropolis. Clearly indebted to the cinema of Scorsese (amongst others), Ellis' latest is a significant leap forward in terms of the filmmaker's own personal development, effectively drawing its audience into a volatile world of corruption and violence where the strong prosper and the weak face a daily struggle to survive life in the city's slums.
Unable to support their two young daughters on the poverty-stricken rice terraces of the Philippines' Banaue Province, Oscar and Mai Ramirez (Jake Macapagal and Althea Vega) make the difficult decision to up sticks and relocate the family to the nation's capital. Upon arrival in Manila, the naive farmers-by-trade prove easy game for all manner of nefarious types,...
Unable to support their two young daughters on the poverty-stricken rice terraces of the Philippines' Banaue Province, Oscar and Mai Ramirez (Jake Macapagal and Althea Vega) make the difficult decision to up sticks and relocate the family to the nation's capital. Upon arrival in Manila, the naive farmers-by-trade prove easy game for all manner of nefarious types,...
- 9/19/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★☆☆☆☆ Eyebrows were raised when German filmmaker Oliver Hirschbiegel - best-known for depicting the final days of Adolf Hitler in 2004's acclaimed Downfall - was announced as the director of a new feature focusing on the last two years in the life of Diana, Princess of Wales. Undeterred by his naysayers, Hirschbiegel pressed on with production, and next week unleashes his Diana (2013) onto the unsuspecting general public. Yet, few could have predicted the bizarre, staccato rendering of the "People's Princess" Hirschbiegel offers, with Stephen Jeffreys' ripe screenplay more suited to pantomime theatre than serious cinema.
Bookended by the fatal Parisian car crash that claimed the Princess' life on 31 August, 1997, Hirschbiegel's Mills & Boon-esque misfire centres on the romance between Diana (Naomi Watts) and Pakistani surgeon Dr. Hasnat Khan (Naveen Andrews) following her separation from the Prince of Wales. Distraught by her treatment at the hands of the Windsors, Diana throws herself...
Bookended by the fatal Parisian car crash that claimed the Princess' life on 31 August, 1997, Hirschbiegel's Mills & Boon-esque misfire centres on the romance between Diana (Naomi Watts) and Pakistani surgeon Dr. Hasnat Khan (Naveen Andrews) following her separation from the Prince of Wales. Distraught by her treatment at the hands of the Windsors, Diana throws herself...
- 9/18/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ Unfathomably overlooked for UK theatrical exhibition, Mexican director Michel Franco's Cannes 2012 hit After Lucia (Después de Lucía) finally makes its way onto DVD this week through StudioCanal. Undeniably tough, yet one of the finest films made on the subject of teenage bullying seen in recent years, Franco's harrowing second feature is a sobering study on coercion and 'group-think', as a young girl's newly-acquired friendship group savagely turn on her following a drunken fumble with a handsome classmate. Featuring a standout turn from Tessa Ia, there's now no excuse for missing this brilliant drama.
Following the tragic death of his wife Lucia in a car accident, barrel-chested professional chef Roberto (Hernán Mendoza) and his 17-year-old daughter, Alejandra (the outstanding Ia), pack their things and move away for a fresh start in an unfamiliar city. Whilst her father slumps in and out of depression, Alejandra quickly makes friends at her new school,...
Following the tragic death of his wife Lucia in a car accident, barrel-chested professional chef Roberto (Hernán Mendoza) and his 17-year-old daughter, Alejandra (the outstanding Ia), pack their things and move away for a fresh start in an unfamiliar city. Whilst her father slumps in and out of depression, Alejandra quickly makes friends at her new school,...
- 9/17/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ Poorly timed and fatally flawed, Fred Schepisi's familial Aussie bitchfest The Eye of the Storm (2011) (adapted from the Patrick White novel of the same name) somehow found its way into UK cinemas earlier this year with almost no fanfare. It's hardly surprising when you consider that this is one of the strangest, most mind-boggling dramas outside of Shane Carruth's Upstream Color, seemingly designed as a thespian three-way between Geoffrey Rush, Charlotte Rampling and Judy Davis. Davis is perhaps the only one of this triumvirate to come away with any kudos, such is the flaccid nature of this botched melodrama.
Rampling, last seen in son Barnaby Southcombe's neo-noir I, Anna, hams it up as dying wealthy matriarch Elizabeth Hunter, who watches on with veiled glee as her actor son Basil (Academy Award winner Rush) and aloof, high-society daughter Dorothy (Golden Globe winner Davis) rush to her side in...
Rampling, last seen in son Barnaby Southcombe's neo-noir I, Anna, hams it up as dying wealthy matriarch Elizabeth Hunter, who watches on with veiled glee as her actor son Basil (Academy Award winner Rush) and aloof, high-society daughter Dorothy (Golden Globe winner Davis) rush to her side in...
- 9/16/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★☆☆☆☆ The inimitable Danny Dyer returned to UK cinema screens earlier this year in Ray Cooney and John Luton's infamous Run for Your Wife (2012), occupying the type of role that few would have associated him with - but will be now be praying he never returns to. Far similar in style and tone to an extended CBeebies offering than the type of 1970s British sex comedy that it purports to ape (the Confessions... cycle's Robin Askwith even makes an ill-advised cameo - the first of many), Cooney and Luton's fatuous farce flops from one unbearable skit to the next, before letting its reprehensible bigamist off the hook, scot-free.
Dyer plays London cabbie John Smith, who inexplicably finds himself married to not one, but two attractive women - one in Stockwell (Denise Van Outen's Michelle), the other in Finsbury (Sarah Harding's Stephanie). After intervening to halt a late night...
Dyer plays London cabbie John Smith, who inexplicably finds himself married to not one, but two attractive women - one in Stockwell (Denise Van Outen's Michelle), the other in Finsbury (Sarah Harding's Stephanie). After intervening to halt a late night...
- 9/16/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ Winner of the sought-after Golden Lion at last year's Venice Film Festival (to the surprise and chagrin of many an attendee), South Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-duk continues his voyage through dark, troubled waters with Pietà (2012), a spiky, often unpleasant tale of a vicious loan shark and his seemingly all-forgiving 'mother'. Ki-duk's personal problems have been well-documented in recent years (following a near-death incident involving an actress during the making of 2008's Dream), and his latest film certainly carries with it it's fair share of emotional baggage, even if it does show flashes of the director's past ingenuity.
Gang-do (Lee Jeong-jin) spends his days terrorising the desperate and destitute, all of whom owe money to his unscrupulous money-lending boss. If they can't pay up during Gang-do's rounds they have two choices: allow themselves to be maimed in order to claim on their insurance policies, or pay with their lives. Our protagonist is cold,...
Gang-do (Lee Jeong-jin) spends his days terrorising the desperate and destitute, all of whom owe money to his unscrupulous money-lending boss. If they can't pay up during Gang-do's rounds they have two choices: allow themselves to be maimed in order to claim on their insurance policies, or pay with their lives. Our protagonist is cold,...
- 9/6/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Narrated by British national treasure John Hurt, Markus Imhoof's More Than Honey (2012) serves as an impassioned ode to the humble bee, whilst at the same time lamenting the steady decline of these most important of insects. Though Albert Einstein's belief that "if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, man would have only four years to live" now feels slightly outdated given the exponential rise of food manufacturing, the bee's significance should not be understated. As Hurt explains, almost a third of the food we eat now depends on the intervention of these diminutive creatures, now certainly "more than honey".
The past fifteen years have seen a sharp drop in bee numbers, due to a plethora of different factors, yet all linked to the same worrying phenomenon: "colony collapse disorder". As we learn, bees are extremely regimented creatures, with drones and warriors all serving under the mantle...
The past fifteen years have seen a sharp drop in bee numbers, due to a plethora of different factors, yet all linked to the same worrying phenomenon: "colony collapse disorder". As we learn, bees are extremely regimented creatures, with drones and warriors all serving under the mantle...
- 9/6/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★★ Pipped to the Palme d'Or post this year by Blue is the Warmest Colour, The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza, 2013) is a sparkling return to form for Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino, following the disappointment of his bemusing English-language debut This Must Be the Place (2012). Starring regular collaborator Toni Servillo, Sorrentino has crafted a masterful ode to human existence, complete with its dizzying highs and miserable lows. Drunk on the visual majesty of Rome, just as Fellini once was, this is arthouse cinema at its most effortlessly entrancing, with life and art blending into one magnificent whole.
Jep Gambardella (Servillo), a 65-year-old journalist and one-time novelist (whose sole literary endeavour, The Human Apparatus, was published to widespread acclaim during his youthful heyday), is seeing out his days amongst Rome's high society, in what he describes as "the whirl of the high life" - a vortex of rooftop parties and decadent late-night soirées.
Jep Gambardella (Servillo), a 65-year-old journalist and one-time novelist (whose sole literary endeavour, The Human Apparatus, was published to widespread acclaim during his youthful heyday), is seeing out his days amongst Rome's high society, in what he describes as "the whirl of the high life" - a vortex of rooftop parties and decadent late-night soirées.
- 9/5/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆
The star of no less than four Thomas Harris novels and five big screen outings (the last, 2007's Hannibal Rising, a commercial and critical flop), refined psychiatrist turned cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter now makes his TV series debut with NBC's Bryan Fuller-produced Hannibal. Loosely based on Harris' inaugural Lecter offering Red Dragon - also the inspiration for Michael Mann's Manhunter (1986) and Brett Ratner's inferior 2002 film - Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen picks up the masochist mantle from Brian Cox, Anthony Hopkins and Gaspard Ulliel before him, with suitably chilling results.
Psychologically battered and bruised following the successful apprehension of sadistic local serial killer 'the Minnesota Shrike', unhinged criminal profiler Will Graham (British actor Hugh Dancy) threatens to walk away from his role at the FBI. However, when a copycat psychopath begins to build upon the Shrike's bloody body of work, Jack Crawford (an authoritative Laurence Fishburne...
The star of no less than four Thomas Harris novels and five big screen outings (the last, 2007's Hannibal Rising, a commercial and critical flop), refined psychiatrist turned cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter now makes his TV series debut with NBC's Bryan Fuller-produced Hannibal. Loosely based on Harris' inaugural Lecter offering Red Dragon - also the inspiration for Michael Mann's Manhunter (1986) and Brett Ratner's inferior 2002 film - Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen picks up the masochist mantle from Brian Cox, Anthony Hopkins and Gaspard Ulliel before him, with suitably chilling results.
Psychologically battered and bruised following the successful apprehension of sadistic local serial killer 'the Minnesota Shrike', unhinged criminal profiler Will Graham (British actor Hugh Dancy) threatens to walk away from his role at the FBI. However, when a copycat psychopath begins to build upon the Shrike's bloody body of work, Jack Crawford (an authoritative Laurence Fishburne...
- 9/2/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Alfonso Cuarón admirers have been waiting patiently for a new feature from the esteemed Mexican filmmaker for seven years now, his last endeavour the positively received dystopian drama Children of Men back in 2006. Near-future sci-fi certainly seems to be Cuarón's cinematic weapon of choice at present as the first images and a teaser trailer for new 3D film Gravity (2013) drift onto the internet. Placing Hollywood heavyweights George Clooney and Sandra Bullock in an intimate, character-led chamber piece within Earth's orbit, Cuarón looks to be getting ever-closer to realising his own childhood dream of becoming an astronaut. Though little is know of the plot at this point, malaise and malfunction clearly ensue.
Bullock, also to be seen this year in American comedy The Heat (not to be confused with the Michael Mann thriller), plays the role of medical engineer Dr. Ryan Stone, a newcomer to space flight who teams up with...
Bullock, also to be seen this year in American comedy The Heat (not to be confused with the Michael Mann thriller), plays the role of medical engineer Dr. Ryan Stone, a newcomer to space flight who teams up with...
- 8/28/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
She has her share of overly obsessive fans, but now it appears that one of Selena Gomez's devotees took it too far.
This past week, a fan of the 21-year-old star was charged with murder after killing his entire family.
Daniel Green is accused of murdering his mother, sister and two children in their Oklahoma City residence.
After arresting Green, police discovered that he was incredibly obsessed with Miss Gomez proclaiming her as "yummy" all over Facebook.
"I want Selena to be my eternal wife and the queen of my kingdom forever," the 40-year-old wrote. "Hey, I love more than God, my momma, my dad, Jesus, myself and ya'll."
Psychologist Steven Sternlof pronounced Green as being "obviously, significantly troubled."
"Someone with an obsession might have a compulsion to stop others interfering in that relationship," he stated.
This past week, a fan of the 21-year-old star was charged with murder after killing his entire family.
Daniel Green is accused of murdering his mother, sister and two children in their Oklahoma City residence.
After arresting Green, police discovered that he was incredibly obsessed with Miss Gomez proclaiming her as "yummy" all over Facebook.
"I want Selena to be my eternal wife and the queen of my kingdom forever," the 40-year-old wrote. "Hey, I love more than God, my momma, my dad, Jesus, myself and ya'll."
Psychologist Steven Sternlof pronounced Green as being "obviously, significantly troubled."
"Someone with an obsession might have a compulsion to stop others interfering in that relationship," he stated.
- 8/20/2013
- GossipCenter
★★☆☆☆ The first offering in a busy year for Steve Coogan - and newly released this week on DVD and Blu-ray - The Look of Love (2013) is the latest collaboration between the comedian and genre-hopping British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom. This fruitful creative partnership has, in the past, offered up such bounties as 24 Hour Party People, A Cock and Bull Story and hit BBC Two series The Trip. Unfortunately, not even 'WinterCoogan' can make a sympathetic protagonist out of Soho sleaze king Paul Raymond, a largely detestable figure who - according to this biopic, at least - drove those around him to despair and beyond.
Entering into a life of grime as a mind-reader in a cabaret act, Liverpudlian chancer Raymond (Coogan) hit upon the bright idea of performing with nude assistants. Struck by the sudden revelation that men enjoy being in the company of naked women, Raymond set about building an empire of gentleman's clubs,...
Entering into a life of grime as a mind-reader in a cabaret act, Liverpudlian chancer Raymond (Coogan) hit upon the bright idea of performing with nude assistants. Struck by the sudden revelation that men enjoy being in the company of naked women, Raymond set about building an empire of gentleman's clubs,...
- 8/20/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Washington, August 18: A man, who is believed to be "obsessed" with Selena Gomez, has been charged for killing his mother, sister, a niece and his infant nephew in Oklahoma City.
Daniel Green, was arrested after another family member found the four dead and called the cops, Radar Online reported.
According to Oklahoma's News9, the 40-year-old's Facebook wall was covered with pictures of Gomez, who he called "yummy," and he has an "extreme obsession" with the singer.
His posts spoke of his wanting to marry her and that he loved her more than his own family members. (Ani)...
Daniel Green, was arrested after another family member found the four dead and called the cops, Radar Online reported.
According to Oklahoma's News9, the 40-year-old's Facebook wall was covered with pictures of Gomez, who he called "yummy," and he has an "extreme obsession" with the singer.
His posts spoke of his wanting to marry her and that he loved her more than his own family members. (Ani)...
- 8/18/2013
- by Anita Agarwal
- RealBollywood.com
★★☆☆☆ Released back in 2010, Matthew Vaughn's teen superhero caper Kick-Ass - based on the graphic novel by fellow Brit Mark Millar - went on to become a surprise hit at the box office, making a household name out of Aaron Taylor-Johnson and introducing the world to Chloë Grace Moretz's effing and jeffing 11-year-old Hit-Girl. With greenhorn Jeff Wadlow now replacing Vaughn in the director's chair for summer sequel Kick-Ass 2 (2013), hopes were high that the two young(ish) leads could rekindle their past chemistry. Unfortunately, whatever smarts the franchise once had appear to have been knocked out of it in the first round.
Wadlow's film picks up the story four years down the line. Taylor-Johnson's Dave Lizewski (aka Kick-Ass) and Moretz's Mindy Macready (Hit-Girl) have settled into the normality of high school life following the blood-letting and bazooka wielding of Vaughn's inaugural offering. Now in the care of guardian...
Wadlow's film picks up the story four years down the line. Taylor-Johnson's Dave Lizewski (aka Kick-Ass) and Moretz's Mindy Macready (Hit-Girl) have settled into the normality of high school life following the blood-letting and bazooka wielding of Vaughn's inaugural offering. Now in the care of guardian...
- 8/13/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ A reboot/rehash/reimagining of Sam Raimi's 1981 cult horror hit The Evil Dead (so successful at the time as to spawn two manic sequels, both starring the inimitable Bruce Campbell), debut director Fede Alvarez's Evil Dead (2013) proves to be a surprisingly reverent, if generically constrained, teen splatterfest. Hoping to bridge the gap between its own universe and that of the original outings (three more films are planned: a direct sequel; a sequel to 1992's Army of Darkness; and an all-encompassing finale), Alvarez's franchise entry has little of Raimi's wild humour, but certainly packs in the bloodshed.
Expanding upon the original film's set-up, five more naive teenage friends gather at a remote woodland cabin to help one of their party, Mia (TV star Jane Levy), kick her damaging heroin addiction. Mia is joined by brother David (Shiloh Fernandez), his girlfriend Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore) and their attractive companions Olivia (Jessica Lucas...
Expanding upon the original film's set-up, five more naive teenage friends gather at a remote woodland cabin to help one of their party, Mia (TV star Jane Levy), kick her damaging heroin addiction. Mia is joined by brother David (Shiloh Fernandez), his girlfriend Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore) and their attractive companions Olivia (Jessica Lucas...
- 8/12/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Right up there as one of our most eagerly anticipated projects still to see the light of day this year, the endlessly creative Spike Jonze's latest offering Her (2013) had us hooked at its simple, yet irresistible premise. A man (played by the ever-watchable Joaquin Phoenix, no less) falls in love with his operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). With a first poster and trailer for Jonze's new effort now live on the web, we've been given a tantalising first glimpse of what the Being John Malkovich and Where the Wild Things Are director has in store for Us audiences this November (a UK release date is still to be confirmed). And whilst the tone may appear light and comedic, When Harry Met Siri this almost certainly won't be.
The official synopsis for Her, released online last year, states the following:
In the not so distant future, Theodore (Phoenix), a...
The official synopsis for Her, released online last year, states the following:
In the not so distant future, Theodore (Phoenix), a...
- 8/9/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ Bringing Austrian director Ulrich Seidl's painfully naturalistic Paradise trilogy to a somewhat dismal dénouement, Paradise: Hope (Paradies: Hoffnung, 2013) sees Melanie (Melanie Lenz) - daughter of Love lead Teresa - packed off to fat camp to shed some excess pounds. Drawn in to a troubling relationship with the camp's director, Seidl once again throws caution to the wind and clinically presents another social scenario where misery and heartache seem the only possible outcomes. Far weaker than the two previous chapters, Hope gropes hopelessly for provocation, but instead finds only tedious, highfalutin banality.
With her mother off holidaying as a sex tourist on the Kenyan coast, Melanie leaves the deeply religious environs of her missionary auntie Anna Marie's house (see Paradise: Faith) for a teenage diet camp situated on the outskirts of an unnamed Austrian town. Placed in a room with three other like-minded girls of a similar age, Melanie...
With her mother off holidaying as a sex tourist on the Kenyan coast, Melanie leaves the deeply religious environs of her missionary auntie Anna Marie's house (see Paradise: Faith) for a teenage diet camp situated on the outskirts of an unnamed Austrian town. Placed in a room with three other like-minded girls of a similar age, Melanie...
- 8/6/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★★ The third season of Terence Winter and Timothy Van Patten's epic Prohibition crime saga Boardwalk Empire heads to DVD and Blu-ray this week, picking up the narrative a whole 16 months after the cataclysmic finale of Season 2. Steve Buscemi reprises his lead role as bootlegging behemoth Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson (a fictionalised take on real-life county treasurer Enoch L. Johnson), the charismatic and cool-headed kingpin in control of coastal tourist trap Atlantic City's criminal underworld. A vibrant portrait of East Coast life during the Roaring Twenties, Boardwalk has, arguably, never been better.
Despite his position of power, things are starting to go against the beleaguered Thompson. His relationship with 'old country' wife Margaret (Kelly Macdonald) is restricted to public niceties following a dispute over money (now donated to the church) and he also faces a new threat in the guise of Italian mobster Gyp Rosetti (Emmy Award nominee Bobby Cannavale), who's...
Despite his position of power, things are starting to go against the beleaguered Thompson. His relationship with 'old country' wife Margaret (Kelly Macdonald) is restricted to public niceties following a dispute over money (now donated to the church) and he also faces a new threat in the guise of Italian mobster Gyp Rosetti (Emmy Award nominee Bobby Cannavale), who's...
- 8/5/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Based on American author Peter Dexter's 1995 pulp novel of the same name, Lee Daniels' The Paperboy (2012) found itself derided and lauded in almost equal measure after screening in competition at last year's Cannes Film Festival. Blending gaudy, stylised visuals with a pungent tale of love, racial prejudice and serial killing, it's certainly a hard pill to swallow on first appraisal, thanks in no small part to its band of reprehensible, backwater Machiavellis. Bona fide cult status may be a push in this film's case, but The Paperboy is still capable of giving good yarn when its director focusses himself on his A-list assets.
Daniels' Precious follow-up involves itself with the story of the Jansen brothers: Ward (a solid, if now samey Matthew McConaughey), a successful reporter, and Jack (Zac Efron), a handsome college dropout and former swimming prodigy. Ward returns to his swampy southern hometown to investigate the case of the wrongly convicted,...
Daniels' Precious follow-up involves itself with the story of the Jansen brothers: Ward (a solid, if now samey Matthew McConaughey), a successful reporter, and Jack (Zac Efron), a handsome college dropout and former swimming prodigy. Ward returns to his swampy southern hometown to investigate the case of the wrongly convicted,...
- 7/30/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ Twilight Saga scribe Stephenie Meyer saw another of her teen-friendly novels adapted for the big screen this year with the release of The Host (2013). Helmed by Andrew Niccol - no stranger to glossy sci-fi following Gattaca and In Time - the film features yet another conflicted female protagonist, unable to decide which one of two hunky heartthrobs she prefers kissing. Importantly, this particular love triangle is played out against the aftermath of an alien invasion, with humanity now host to phosphorous, otherworldly parasites. Despite this promising premise, however, soppy romanticism does eventually take centre stage.
One of only a handful of scattered rebels is Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan), on the run from the invading race's agents with her younger brother Jamie (Chandler Canterbury). Held captive after a near-fatal fall, Melanie is assimilated by the planet's new dominant species before being renamed 'Wanderer' ('Wanda') by arresting officer-turned-interrogator The Seeker (Diane Kruger...
One of only a handful of scattered rebels is Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan), on the run from the invading race's agents with her younger brother Jamie (Chandler Canterbury). Held captive after a near-fatal fall, Melanie is assimilated by the planet's new dominant species before being renamed 'Wanderer' ('Wanda') by arresting officer-turned-interrogator The Seeker (Diane Kruger...
- 7/29/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ Having already made history as the first full-length feature ever to have been filmed entirely inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Haifaa al-Mansour's charming debut, Wadjda (2012), cleverly conceals a wealth of sociopolitical complexity beneath its deceptively simplistic central narrative. Featuring a breakout performance from 12-year-old, Riyadh-born non-professional Waad Mohammed as the "spunky little girl" of the film's title, this even-handed fable portrays the Kingdom as a nation on the peripheries of great change, with gender equality foremost in the minds of thousands of young, aspirational Saudi women.
Each day, en route to her all-girls school, Wadjda passes a toy store housing a beautiful green bicycle. Keen to be able to race against a local boy, despite that fact that it's 'forbidden' for women to ride bikes, Wadjda begins her own black market operation in the playground selling 'illicit products' such as jewellery. After a few close calls, our protagonists...
Each day, en route to her all-girls school, Wadjda passes a toy store housing a beautiful green bicycle. Keen to be able to race against a local boy, despite that fact that it's 'forbidden' for women to ride bikes, Wadjda begins her own black market operation in the playground selling 'illicit products' such as jewellery. After a few close calls, our protagonists...
- 7/18/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ A filmmaker torn between intimate tales set in his native Iceland and big-budget Hollywood genre pieces (next up is the Mark Wahlberg/Denzel Washington actioner 2 Guns), director Baltasar Kormákur is back on familiar soil with 'based on a true story' survival drama The Deep (Djúpið, 2012). Sparsely plotted and unforgivingly sombre, Kormákur character study centres upon portly fisherman Gulli (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), who is forced to endure the near-freezing temperatures of the Atlantic after his trawler is dragged under by a snagged net. Left alone to consider his seemingly imminent death, Gulli suddenly spies land.
However, in a classic case of 'out of the frying pan and into the fire', our bedraggled everyman finds himself washed up onto a treacherous lava field, its long petrified magma transformed into razor-sharp daggers that tear at the feet of this unfortunate soul to ribbons. Staggering through this Hell on Earth, Gulli miraculously arrives back...
However, in a classic case of 'out of the frying pan and into the fire', our bedraggled everyman finds himself washed up onto a treacherous lava field, its long petrified magma transformed into razor-sharp daggers that tear at the feet of this unfortunate soul to ribbons. Staggering through this Hell on Earth, Gulli miraculously arrives back...
- 7/11/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ Joining the Canadian master's sci-fi classic Scanners (1981) on UK Blu-ray for the first time thanks to Second Sight, David Cronenberg's gestating chiller The Brood (1979) has certainly played its part in the re-evaluation of children (and the complicit female reproductive system) as potentially murderous monstrosities. One of the greatest body horrors ever made, The Brood has been overlooked by some commentators due to some dated effects and occasional comparisons to the more lucrative Alien (also released that same year), but has more than enough guile and gore to go toe-to-toe with Scott's game-changer.
The film begins with concerned father Frank Carveth (Art Hindle) picking up daughter Candice (Cindy Hinds) from the shady Somafree Institute of Psychoplasmics, a secure clinic where ex-wife Nola's (Sam Eggar) is currently undergoing a course of experimental treatment for her uncontrollable bouts of rage. Run by the shamanistic Dr. Raglan (Oliver Reed), Raglan's divisive and extremely...
The film begins with concerned father Frank Carveth (Art Hindle) picking up daughter Candice (Cindy Hinds) from the shady Somafree Institute of Psychoplasmics, a secure clinic where ex-wife Nola's (Sam Eggar) is currently undergoing a course of experimental treatment for her uncontrollable bouts of rage. Run by the shamanistic Dr. Raglan (Oliver Reed), Raglan's divisive and extremely...
- 7/9/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ The latest in a long line of north-of-the-border, 'gritty' British crime dramas, Ray Burdis' The Wee Man (2013) has arguably more charm and invention than most, yet still stumbles into the same routine clichés and pitfalls that have blighted the gangster movie over the last few decades. Sweet Sixteen star Martin Compston puts in a solid, no-frills performance as titular, real life Glaswegian gangbanger Paul Ferris, who reverts to a life of crime after years of brutal bullying and violent abuse throughout his formative childhood. There's even a scene where an innocent dog gets kicked to death, just to cover all bases.
Raised during the 1960s by two very decent parents in the notorious Glasgow suburb of Blackhill - and perpetually warned by his protective father of the dangers of the city's initially alluring crime culture - Ferris is forced to do his first round of porridge after a frenzied...
Raised during the 1960s by two very decent parents in the notorious Glasgow suburb of Blackhill - and perpetually warned by his protective father of the dangers of the city's initially alluring crime culture - Ferris is forced to do his first round of porridge after a frenzied...
- 7/9/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ A fitting conclusion to the British director's exceedingly loose 'Blood and Ice Cream' trilogy (see Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), Edgar Wright's The World's End (2013) successfully breeds the genre-soaked approach of the former with the small-town quaintness of the latter, plus that little added dash of flair that made 2011's likeable Scott Pilgrim vs. The World such a visual treat. With regulars Nick Frost and Simon Pegg back on leading men duty, all the omens beforehand pointed towards another self-referential slice of 'fried gold'. What we actually get is a heady, industrial-sized vat of Wright's unique, morish humour.
Rounded up by prodigal lord and master Gary King (a dishevelled Pegg), four former school friends approaching the big 'four-oh' (Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman and Eddie Marsan) return to their humdrum rural hometown of Newton Haven to reattempt the fateful pub crawl that bested them one hazy night in 1990. Known as the Golden Mile,...
Rounded up by prodigal lord and master Gary King (a dishevelled Pegg), four former school friends approaching the big 'four-oh' (Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman and Eddie Marsan) return to their humdrum rural hometown of Newton Haven to reattempt the fateful pub crawl that bested them one hazy night in 1990. Known as the Golden Mile,...
- 7/9/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Faith (Paradise: Glaube, 2012), the second chapter in the Austrian's Paradise trilogy, begins with a semi-naked hausfrau flagellating herself in front of an effigy of Christ - and just gets stranger. Powerful in parts, yet raw and uncomfortable for long stretches, Faith suffers from many of the same pitfalls as previous offering Love - in particular, Seidl's non-judgemental handling of his morally-suspect characters. Leaving the sex tourist-plagued beaches of Kenya far behind, we return to Vienna to follow the story of devout local Catholic Anna Marie (a commendable Maria Hofstätter).
On vacation from her day job as a kindly X-ray technician, Anna Marie (sister to Love's Teresa) takes it upon herself to spread the word of Jesus Christ to the sinners around her, parading a foot-high statue of the Virgin Mary with her as she goes. Her primary 'target' are Vienna's immigrant populace - some God-fearing, some...
On vacation from her day job as a kindly X-ray technician, Anna Marie (sister to Love's Teresa) takes it upon herself to spread the word of Jesus Christ to the sinners around her, parading a foot-high statue of the Virgin Mary with her as she goes. Her primary 'target' are Vienna's immigrant populace - some God-fearing, some...
- 7/4/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ The latest welcome addition to the Masters of Cinema's growing Kaneto Shindô catalogue, the cult Japanese director's 1968 film Kuroneko (Yabu no naka no kuroneko) feels like the near-perfect partner piece to his demonic earlier effort, Onibaba. Celebrating both pictures' atmospheric, effortlessly sensual and often terrifying feudal Japan-set ghostly narratives, the restoration and ongoing preservation of these two mini masterworks has rightly helped the late Shindô to earn the kind of acclaim and reverence previously reserved for iconic figureheads such as Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu.
Loosely based on the Japanese folktale The Cat's Return, Kuroneko begins with the brutal rape and murder of a poverty-stricken mother and daughter-in-law (Nobuko Otowa and Kiwako Taichi) at the cruel hands of a pillaging band of low-life samurai. Brought back from the dead as vengeful, vampiric cat spirits, the unholy duo take it upon themselves to prey on wayward soldiers trespassing across their accursed place of rest.
Loosely based on the Japanese folktale The Cat's Return, Kuroneko begins with the brutal rape and murder of a poverty-stricken mother and daughter-in-law (Nobuko Otowa and Kiwako Taichi) at the cruel hands of a pillaging band of low-life samurai. Brought back from the dead as vengeful, vampiric cat spirits, the unholy duo take it upon themselves to prey on wayward soldiers trespassing across their accursed place of rest.
- 7/2/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ A documentary every bit as humorous and uplifting as it is tragic and melancholic, Emma Davie and Morag McKinnon's I Am Breathing (2013) - which screens at this year's Edinburgh Film Festival ahead of a limited theatrical release - follows the final few months and weeks in the life of 34-year-old Neil Platt, who succumbed to Motor Neurone Disease in 2009. An undoubted 'glass is half-full' sort of guy, Platt busies himself with a popular online blog and compiling a keep-sake for his infant son Oscar, whilst he and his wife are inevitably forced to face up to the reality of Neil's impending death at the hands of his affliction.
Witty, erudite and contemplative, Platt comes across as an extremely affable individual, pouring his last ounces of energy into raising public awareness of his debilitating condition. Blending captured footage of Platt with nostalgic home videos from his past, Davie and McKinnon...
Witty, erudite and contemplative, Platt comes across as an extremely affable individual, pouring his last ounces of energy into raising public awareness of his debilitating condition. Blending captured footage of Platt with nostalgic home videos from his past, Davie and McKinnon...
- 6/22/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ Following up 2011's Palme d'Or-winning The Tree of Life was always going to be a tough gig for American auteur Terrence Malick, but few commentators could have predicted the huge division of opinion that new film To the Wonder would provoke. Released this week on DVD and Blu-ray, To the Wonder sees Malick collaborating once again with Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (combining to predictably resplendent effect), and whilst criticism has been raised over the film's lack of narrative drive and its high-faluting voiceovers, this is still very much a partner piece to The Tree of Life's quest for everyday divinity.
Academy Awarder Ben Affleck (unlikely to work with Malick again following a recent spat) stars as American overseas Neil, who falls in love with Ukrainian single mother Marina (Olga Kurylenko) during a stay in Paris. Marina and her young daughter - from a previous marriage - agree to travel...
Academy Awarder Ben Affleck (unlikely to work with Malick again following a recent spat) stars as American overseas Neil, who falls in love with Ukrainian single mother Marina (Olga Kurylenko) during a stay in Paris. Marina and her young daughter - from a previous marriage - agree to travel...
- 6/17/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Say hello to The Glades star Jordan Wall. And while you’re at it, give him a hearty congratulations. He and Ed actor Josh Randall are the latest actors Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva as season 5 guest stars.
Both men will show their faces when the sixth episode of season 5 hits the airwaves. Season 5, by the by, premieres at 9 pm. on Sunday, June 23.
Randall, according to THR, will play Stuart Kane. Kane is a “world-renowned L.A.-based chemistry professor.” Sounds like he has it all, right? Well, Kane has fallen head over heels in love with a beautiful model, which will threaten a burgeoning career, not to mention the romance itself, when he is arrested at Lax for attempting to smuggle drugs out of the country. Doh!
Wall on the other hand, will act as Brad Pines, a grad student in chemistry and the protege of Kane. Brad appears...
Both men will show their faces when the sixth episode of season 5 hits the airwaves. Season 5, by the by, premieres at 9 pm. on Sunday, June 23.
Randall, according to THR, will play Stuart Kane. Kane is a “world-renowned L.A.-based chemistry professor.” Sounds like he has it all, right? Well, Kane has fallen head over heels in love with a beautiful model, which will threaten a burgeoning career, not to mention the romance itself, when he is arrested at Lax for attempting to smuggle drugs out of the country. Doh!
Wall on the other hand, will act as Brad Pines, a grad student in chemistry and the protege of Kane. Brad appears...
- 6/13/2013
- by Sasha Nova
- Boomtron
★★★☆☆ The inaugural part of Austrian provocateur Ulrich Seidl's Paradise trilogy (with all three films receiving staggered releases in the coming months), Paradise: Love (Paradies: Liebe, 2012) is a bitter first dose of squirm-inducing realism. Focusing on one rotund holiday-goer's adventures as a sex tourist on the Kenyan coast, Seidl certainly doesn't shy away from the controversial, exploring themes of racial exploitation and societal injustice within a beach community bloated by its own troubling contradictions. Thankfully, this first entry still somehow manages to remain as enthralling as it is excruciating, despite its languid pace.
Known on the glistening white beaches of Kenya's coastlines as 'sugar mamas', numerous predatory European women have made a habit of embarking on sex tourist vacations, seeking out the attentions of young African men who sell love (well, sex) in order to earn a living and provide for their dependants. Fifty-year-old Austrian single mother Teresa (an oddly...
Known on the glistening white beaches of Kenya's coastlines as 'sugar mamas', numerous predatory European women have made a habit of embarking on sex tourist vacations, seeking out the attentions of young African men who sell love (well, sex) in order to earn a living and provide for their dependants. Fifty-year-old Austrian single mother Teresa (an oddly...
- 6/13/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★☆☆☆ Nominated for two Academy Awards and marking a return to live-action filmmaking for director Robert Zemeckis, alcohol addiction drama Flight (2012) - on paper, at least - has a great deal going for it. Denzel Washington commands the eye (and the skies) as troubled pilot Whip Whitaker, who must battle against both an impending tribunal and his own personal demons after being accused of intoxication on duty following a commercial airline disaster. Sadly, Washington's rousing central performance is where the buck stops, with Zemeckis unable to lift this Oscar-baiting melodrama above the rest of the chasing pack.
Washington's Whitaker becomes an overnight media messiah after the charismatic airline pilot miraculously crash-lands his plane in the aftermath of, what we presume, was a mid-air equipment malfunction. Somehow managing to save the lives of nearly every passenger on board (tragically, two stewardesses are killed during the chaos), our hero apparent awakens in hospital...
Washington's Whitaker becomes an overnight media messiah after the charismatic airline pilot miraculously crash-lands his plane in the aftermath of, what we presume, was a mid-air equipment malfunction. Somehow managing to save the lives of nearly every passenger on board (tragically, two stewardesses are killed during the chaos), our hero apparent awakens in hospital...
- 6/7/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★★ What defines a bona fide cult classic? Is it its bold, inimitable style? It's army of loyal devotees, perhaps? Or is it its unconventional approach to the cinematic form as a whole? Whichever of the aforementioned attributes floats your monkey-infested raft, Bavarian director Werner Herzog's 1972 effort Aguirre, the Wrath of God more than meets the criteria. A firm favourite among critics, filmmakers and arthouse admirers the world over, Herzog's existentialist trek through the perilous Amazon rainforest helped to herald in the era of New German Expression and also introduced wildman Klaus Kinski to dumbstruck audiences.
Now newly restored and returning to selected cinemas in June of this year courtesy of the British Film Institute, Herzog's third feature stars the incomparable Kinski - once described by Herzog as "probably the most difficult actor in the world to deal with" - as the titular Don Lope de Aguirre, a power-crazed conquistador...
Now newly restored and returning to selected cinemas in June of this year courtesy of the British Film Institute, Herzog's third feature stars the incomparable Kinski - once described by Herzog as "probably the most difficult actor in the world to deal with" - as the titular Don Lope de Aguirre, a power-crazed conquistador...
- 6/6/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
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