Quite possibly the weirdest film I’ve seen all year, which one would think would be reason enough to warrant some kind of recommendation. However, after a pretty gonzo horror-fuelled opening that sees the disembodied head of a female demon set up shop in a remote Malaysian village, the film takes a bizarre turn as the […] Read more »
In an effort to cash in on the popularity of gross-out sex comedy Vulgaria, this wayward, sloppy and mostly uninspiring trio of saucy tales emerges, and for the most part fails to impress. The first segment in particular, in which two young male and sexually inexperienced students are forced – due to accommodation shortages – […] Read more »
Eric Matti’s gritty yet composed Filipino thriller is one of the year’s best crime dramas, exploring the allegedly true stories of incarcerated prisoners plucked from their cells to commit high profile hits for corrupt politicians. Joel Torre is phenomenal in the lead role, as an aging convict facing parole and potentially the end to a […] Read more »
Andrew Bujalski’s mostly successful faux documentary spotlights an assembly of awkward boffins duking it out with their unfeasably large computers in the early 80s. It makes some wonderful observations about nerd culture, accentuated by a lovingly rendered 1.33:1 retro aesthetic, but the occasional daliances with surrealism jar rather frustratingly with the otherwise slavishly realistic tone […] Read more »
Excellent Spanish thriller that takes two seemingly separate story strands and sends them hurtling towards each other with predictably shocking, tragic consequences. In the Spanish countryside on the eve of the civil war, a group of children who can feel no pain are confined to an asylum after being deemed a danger to themselves and […] Read more »
Excellent Danish crime drama has distinct echoes of early Nicolas Winding Refn in its story of a young man drawn into the Copenhagen underworld while looking to provide for his mum and younger brother. As he begins to savour the benefits of a life of crime, he must stop his more impressionable sibling from following […] Read more »
Indian director Anurag Kashyap’s follow up to the epic crime saga, Gangs of Wasseypur, is a contemporary kidnapping thriller that more than lives up to its title. When a wannabe actor with a failed marriage loses his young daughter to the bustling city streets he is pitted against the corrupt police captain who is now […] Read more »
Not to brag, but Josh Johnson’s nostalgic documentary about the death of the VHS era and many films along with it, is chock full of people I know. This not-so-strange phenomenon is helped by the fact that a large percentage of the film was shot in Austin, Texas and that many of the experts questioned […] Read more »
One of the best examples of cinematic schadenfraude in recent memory, first-time director E.L. Katz takes two down on their luck losers and pits them against each other – for money, and the delight of a bored, affluent couple with nothing to do. It’s The Most Dangerous Game for the reality TV show generation, where […] Read more »
After months reading about Richard Raaphorst’s Nazi era found footage zombie movie, I was rather underwhlemed by the whole experience. The central conceit, in which a young Russian soldier is ordered to document the mission of his squad, which happens upon a remote lab where the deranged Dr. Frankenstein’s journal is being used as a […] Read more »
Chilean surrealist Alejandro Jodorowsky returns to filmmaking for the first time in more than 20 years, and the results are every it as bizarre and beautiful as we coupld have hoped for. Loosely depicting his own childhood in Chile, Jodorowsky’s own son, Brontis, plays the director’s father as a strict disciplinarian enamoured by Stalin, while […] Read more »
Of interest almost solely because of a rare acting performance from Alejandro Jodorowsky, this Italian psychodrama proves a baffling, underwhelming dud. As our heroine battles depression and an incredibly frustrating and overbearing boyfriend, she leaves their kinky S&M infused city life to stay with her aunt in a creepy old country house. There the ghosts […] Read more »
Utterly ridiculous and hokey, but not without plenty of charm and enthusiastic splatter, this Filipino horror sees an orphaned actress tormented by the titular demonic appliance. People and pets are killed in their scores, dragged to their chilly demise by giant tentacles, but then diligently preserved in glass jars inside said fridge. Like I said, […] Read more »
The opening film at this year’s PiFan Festival is this incredible blend of live action and animation rom Ari Folman, based on the novel by Solaris author Stanislav Lem. This mind-bending slice of science fiction stars Robin Wright, Danny Huston and Harvey Keitel. Read my full review over at Twitch Read more »
While Fernando is otherwise engaged relocating himself somewhere new in Asia, James is joined by special guest Pierce Conran () from Twitch and Modern Korean Cinema, to discuss the highlights of this year’s Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival and also Bong Joon-ho’s highly anticipated sci-fi epic, Snowpiercer. Podcast: Play in new window | Download Read more »
After an extended hiatus we have returned! In our latest dispatch Fernando and I discuss the many cinematic delights of this year’s PiFan Film Festival in South Korea, highlightng films as diverse as Miike Takashi’s For Love’s Sake and Zal Batmanglij’s Sound Of My Voice. Enjoy! Podcast: Play in new window | Download Read more »