Rob Zombie has made his name as a filmmaker manking extremely gory films that seem designed to make the viewer want to constantly wince, such as The Devil’s Rejects and House Of 1000 Corpses. For The Lords Of Salem he sticks with horror but tones down the blood, guts and truly gruesome violence for a film that deliberately harks back to the movies of the 60s and 70s, although still with a modern feel. [Read more...]

For nearly 50 years now Ken Loach has been charting his own course with the sort of social realist cinema that’s ensured he’s long had admirers and been beloved in arthouse circles, but has often had difficulty convincing mainstream audiences to give him a chance. It’s a bit of a shame, as while he did go through a period where his films were a bit of a slog, he usually has a knack for making movies that while grounded in an often deprived or desperate social world, still manage to be entertaining and truly believe in the possibilities of human beings. That’s certainly true of The Angels’ Share. [Read more...]

The Island President tries to give a human face to climate change, following Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed. The movie opens with a quick history of the man, who was educated in England before returning to The Maldives and working for years to bring democracy to the autocratic islands that had been ruled by the same man since 1978. He was arrested and tortured numerous times, had to go into exile before going back and managing to help force change and become President in 2008.

Rather than just resting on his laurels, Mohamed quickly realised that the biggest issue facing The Maldives is climate change and that if it isn’t stopped, the islands may literally sink under the waves in the next 50 years. The film follows his attempts to raise the profile of the issue and affect change ahead of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in December of 2009. [Read more...]

Hollywood is now investing a lot of time and money into fairytales of old, as with today’s CGI anything goes. You wait ages for a Snow White films and two turn up, the same can also be said of waiting for a Tarsem Singh film, as we hadn’t had anything since 2006’s The Fall, and now we’ve had Immortals and Mirror Mirror within a few months of one another. One does not normally associate a Tarsem Singh film with comedy, but this is what has he has delivered with Mirror Mirror, which is unusual considering his inability to connect with the audience with his previous films.

Tarsem Singh is a cinematic visionary who tends to focus more on imagery, costumes and style than with plots, and again has delivered something very similar with Mirror Mirror. Personally I enjoy watching Singh’s films and marvel at the beauty and striking canvas he envisages like a true artist (it is definitely style over substance), along with the creator of his incredible costumes, Eiko Ishioka, who unfortunately passed away this year. [Read more...]