I sometimes wonder if Gordon Parks knew he was making film history with Shaft. From the very first moments of the film, where Isaac Hayes’ soothingly seductive voice regales the legend of John Shaft, as we see the titular character walk through Time’s Square, it is clear that something very special is happening. This is…

Shadow (Chinese: 影 or Yǐng) is an astonishing achievement. Zhang Yimou has established himself as perhaps China’s most important filmmaker, at least from the perspective of the worldwide resonance of his films. This film, in particular, sees the master returning to form, creating a film that will undoubtedly exist alongside his towering masterpieces such as…

Assault on Precinct 13 reaffirmed something that I’ve slowly started to believe is less of an opinion and more of an unquestionable fact – John Carpenter is one of the most visionary filmmakers of his generation. While his cinematic career will deservedly be defined mainly through the lens of his two horror masterpieces Halloween and…

Steve McQueen has come to be seen as one of this generation’s finest auteurs, a highly-respected filmmaker who has been able to captivate audiences with his unique approach to storytelling and his remarkable technical prowess, most likely a remnant of his career as a visual artist before he went into narrative filmmaking. He achieved all…

“Revenge is a dish best served cold” – a cliched adage, but one that literature has held closely for centuries. The idea of wreaking havoc on the lives of those that previously wronged you has always been a ripe topic for many artists, and cinema, in particular, has always been facilitative to the revenge storyline….

For a community that thrives on the adoration of abstract images and the odd stories they tend to tell, the cinephile community is filled with hypocrites, especially from those that normally take a more elitist point of view. One can’t go a day without hearing someone lament about how the modern film industry is over-run…

Well, where do we begin? As shameful as it is to say, I don’t think I’ve got the words that can appropriately describe Mandy, the latest film from the obscurely brilliant Panos Cosmatos. I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into, but considering the director’s previous work, Beyond the Black Rainbow was a work…

A decade ago, a film called Speed Racer was released. I was still a cinematic neophyte, and thus I took the thoughts of the critics as being the gospel truth and considering this film received an almost overwhelmingly negative response, I opted to skip it and go for something a bit more acclaimed. Now, having…

There are few directors working today that excite me as much as Edgar Wright. His three comedies Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End are absolutely brilliant pieces of cinema and some of the best comedy films of the 21st century. Naturally, being a fan of his, I would be excited about…

There is an abundance of trash that comes out year after year – terrible films with poor stories and questionable choices. What has been dubbed as “B-movies” occupy a very odd but solid place in cinema. Whereas B-movies started out as being earnestly-made films that failed to be of quality, they have evolved into films…