Only someone as gifted and precise in his vision as Pedro Almodóvar could make a film like Talk to Her (Spanish: Hable con ella), and not have the final result be an overwrought and vaguely perverse bundle of bizarre scenarios. Not only did he successfully tell a story that would be considered grotesque in the…

Growing up is difficult already, so having the constant threat of inter-faith violence lingering over your quaint Irish neighbourhood is not the most pleasant experience for a young boy trying to make his way through a world he has barely begun to understand. This is the starting-point for Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast (quite literally, with the…

From a contemporary cinematic perspective, there are few artists quite as interesting as Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, who has steadily found his status growing in esteem, moving from the director of films like Happy Hour (more known for its intimidating running time than it is for the contents of those five hours of stunning filmmaking) and Asako…

Art loves a crisis. There’s something about a person (or several) being in peril that inherently fascinates us and keeps us coming back, especially when it is in relation to the movies – from horror to action, comedy to melodrama, people facing adversity is the foundation of the film industry in one way or the…

Jean Renoir is one of a few artists who can easily lay claim to being one of the finest filmmakers of any generation – his work stretched across the decades, and saw the director tackle every conceivable side of society through his elegant, fascinating works. One of his most interesting qualities was his ability to…

As they say, there’s no business like showbusiness – and no one will remind you of this fact faster than those working within the entertainment industry, whether for better or worse. Hollywood has had a preoccupation with telling stories about itself on numerous occasions, almost from the time it came into being – and over…

When it comes to looking at a film about important issues, we have to make a difficult decision in our adjudication – can subpar writing be redeemed through good intentions? This is a question we often have to ask, with the general consensus depending on both how effective the supposedly poorer writing is in contrast…

Ikiru (Japanese: 生きる) isn’t a film so much as it is a deeply moving voyage to the heart of the human condition, told through a fervent form of compassion rarely found in even the most empathetic works of cinema. Praising Akira Kurosawa for being a gifted filmmaker is the same as calling Mozart a talented…

Paddy Considine is one of those actors who many of us recognize, and whose presence we often appreciate, even if he’s not someone whose name we immediately can recall. However, he has proven himself to be a very gifted artist on countless occasions, to the point where his first attempt at stepping behind the camera…

The reappraisal of Ryūsuke Hamaguchi as not only one of the most interesting directors working in his native Japan, but one of the most important artists of the current generation on a global scale has been wonderful. He has been working steadily for over a decade, but has only recently managed to achieve a level…