- Testament to the adage that truth is stranger than fiction, Shut Up Little Man introduces us to a viral phenomenon that predates the internet and the strange underground phenomenon of ‘audio verite’. It all began in San Francisco in 1987 when two mid-west punks, Eddie and Mitch moved into a cruddy flat with noisy neighbours [...]Click to read more about this film »
- France is a dedicated short filmmaking nation; the richness of their storytelling invention is vast. This year’s French Panorama selection features often very funny stories about the eccentricities of characters at work in the shadows of everyday life. In Mixed Doubles, James is a witness in a trial and protected by a bodyguard called Arthur. [...]Click to read more about this film »
- Movie characters such as Freddy in Nightmare on Elm Street and Norman Bates in Psycho suggest that people with mental illness are violent, evil and out of control. This is the view of Dr Peter Byrne, Consultant Psychiatrist at Newham University Hospital and Director of Public Education at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, who has [...]Click to read more about this film »
- The second of many screen versions of Gaston Leroux’s famous novel is universally hailed as the best, thanks in no small part to the unforgettable, larger than life performance by the great Lon Chaney, also designer of his own infamously gruesome makeup job. Universal Studios created considerable media hype on the film’s release surrounding the [...]Click to read more about this film »
- A dynamic new approach to political drama, Flowers of Evil brilliantly utilises internet footage of the Iranian election protests in 2009 to underpin a youthful Parisian love story in troubled times. Anahita, a young woman from Tehran’s high society is sent to Paris by her parents during political unrest in their home town. She meets [...]Click to read more about this film »
- A breathtaking crime drama from one of Korea’s most exciting filmmakers, Na Hong-jin’s The Yellow Sea sets a new standard for hardcore action. When a cabdriver agrees to murder a businessman for a local crime boss, he could never imagine how deep into the criminal underworld he’s about to fall. Stuck in a foreign land, [...]Click to read more about this film »
- After flooding in the remote Vermont mountains, strange stories surface of odd things found in the swollen rivers. Albert Wilmarth, a folklore professor at Miskatonic University, at first dismisses these sightings. That is, until he begins to correspond with Henry Akeley, a farmer who claims strange creatures are terrorizing him. Like in their silent-film version [...]Click to read more about this film »
- The Swiss fable of the Sennentuntsci tells of a woman created from straw who is made flesh by the devil to do her creators’ bidding. All goes well until they mistreat her and she takes her bloody revenge. Here, director Michael Seiner adds his own twist to the tale, tranposing the action to a remote [...]Click to read more about this film »
- Until 1980 most Indonesian films had followed the Indian method of filmmaking, with musical numbers, slapstick comedy, et al. The first true horror film aimed at a western audience, Mystics in Bali is a forgotten classic that was deemed too bizarre and shocking on its original release. College student Cathy travels to Bali to research [...]Click to read more about this film »
- An inventive explosion of different styles, Mars is a rotoscope-sci-fi-slacker-romantic comedy with a raft of hipster cameos and a stylistic nod to comic book art. It’s also great fun from beginning to end. Mark Duplass (Humpday, The Puffy Chair) plays Charlie Brownsville, a kind of slacker-celebrity astronaut sent out on the first manned mission to [...]Click to read more about this film »
