In Bring Your Own Brigade, British film-maker Lucy Walker takes us back to the California tragedies of 2018 and a crisis that continues to rage on“In the Christian imagination,” says Lucy Walker’s voiceover, “hell is fire pits, it’s being burned alive….
All Hands on Deck review – fresh and funny French holiday romance
A romantic surprise has unexpected consequences in a gentle comedy channelling Éric Rohmer crossed with Carry on CampingHere is a terrifically fresh, funny and gentle film from director and co-writer Guillaume Brac, which takes quite seriously somethin…
A Film On Possibility
British trancecore band Enter Shikari spent the last few days releasing a series of mini-documentaries, partially about the making of their 2020 album Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible [YouTube playlist], but more interestingly about the sta…
The Fever review – dreamy film about an indigenous Brazilian’s alienation
Maya Da-Rin’s subtle, poetic debut about a man with a mysterious fever engages with the hidden lives of the Desana people of BrazilHere is a mysterious and opaque movie, a feature debut from 42-year-old Brazilian artist and film-maker Maya Da-Rin. It d…
‘It doesn’t leave you’: the toxic toll of LGBTQ conversion therapy
Netflix documentary Pray Away, exec-produced by Ryan Murphy, traces the history of conversion therapy with regretful leaders of the “ex-gay” movementJulie Rodgers was 16 years old when her mother introduced her to Ricky Chelette, the “singles minister”…
Mission: Galaxy review – kids’ eco space odyssey lacks energy
While its goals are noble, uninspiring animation fails to ignite this sci-fi questMission: Galaxy opens on Planet Kepler, once a vibrant and fecund home for its inhabitants. A solemn voiceover recalls the tragic day when Earthers trespassed on this bea…
Hollywood’s Sunset Studio to open new base in Hertfordshire
US production house is latest major studio to find a home in region as demand for TV and film surgesHollywood’s Sunset Studios, which produced La La Land, Zoolander and the first in the X-Men franchise, has become the latest US movie production house t…
Jessie Cave on body image, bereavement and being relentless: ‘I don’t have any secrets’
The actor, comic and writer talks about her bestselling debut novel, the cruelty of costume fittings, how it felt to be in the Harry Potter franchise – and finding hope in small thingsAs a compulsive diary writer – she has kept one since she was eight …
The Concert For Bangladesh
Sunday, August 1, 1971, George Harrison (Beatle, Wilbury) got some of his friends together for two charity concerts. The Concert For Bangladesh [Wikipedia] is a film that documents those extraordinary concerts. You can watch it on Vimeo. [1h30m]
Old review – M Night Shyamalan’s beach thriller is all washed up
Gael Garcia Bernal and Vicky Krieps are all at sea in this holiday-from-hell dramaThere’s only a certain extent to which a director can flirt ironically with the clunky storytelling of a Tales of the Unexpected episode before it stops being ironic and …