In 2009, the film critic Danny Leigh wrote a fantastic piece in the Guardian on the lack of African cinema enjoyed in British cinemas. It doesn’t seem that much has ...
Of all the irritations of the cinema, other people are the worst. A modern cinema audience may chatter, eat, obscure the view, throw litter, snore and confidently make pronouncements on ...
The last time I went to the Showcase, a 14-screen multiplex alongside a dual carriageway just outside Middlesbrough, I was two feet shorter and a lot more interested in dinosaurs. ...
Cities are challenging: to live in and to define. They are each a unique life form constructed from many smaller ones. For some they are amazing, baffling or frustrating, particularly ...
The Hackney Picturehouse is a marvel. Particularly on a Sunday morning, when the weather is cold and bright in the way that one imagines Sweden must be. The buildings seem ...
There’s a scene early on in Claire Denis’ tenth film in which a child soldier fingers a cheap-looking gold lighter and refers to it as “just white material”. What does ...
As I was heading through the rain to see Michael Haneke’s latest film, Amour, I sent a text to a friend that read, ‘Off to be bludgeoned by Haneke’s latest ...
I am a man of many rituals. One is that I like to go for a jog, or at least a walk, before I write anything. Another is that I ...
Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master is a good-looking film with a dramatic composition and a narrative that is full of ideas, peppered with intriguing spaces for thought. It is a ...
When a film declares itself to be “based on real events”, there is a certain temptation for me to do as much research as I can on the subject matter ...
A stranger rolls into town in a car carried by the force of a great wave, a wave that lives on in the memories and haunts the dreams of the ...
While many horror writers imagine ghosts along distinctly sympathetic Freudian lines—there’s something in their past that’s making them behave in such wicked ways, and if they can just work through ...
Last week I attended the 19th Raindance Film Festival in London, watching six films out of the 12 days. Looking back, I wish I had gone to more screenings, but ...
