Frances Ha

Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013

Rating: 3.5/5 An endearing and fresh take on the messy lives of twenty-somethings, Frances Ha is equal parts Woody Allen and Lena Dunham, taking a neurotic central character and using her to charming effect. A star-making performance from Greta Gerwig in the title role ensures that Frances Read more...

Only Lovers Left Alive

Posted 3:48pm Sunday 1st September 2013

Rating: 3/5 Only Lovers Left Alive is a slim and idiosyncratic film that has received more of a mixed bag of reviews than the Film Festival itself. A darkly funny take on the tired vampire genre, it documents the centuries-old romance between vampires Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Read more...

The East

Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013

Rating: 4/5 A rare environmental-political thriller, The East represents one of the bigger-budgeted and more purely enjoyable options from the 2013 film festival. It’s a curious combination of The Departed meets Martha Marcy May Marlene, and combines the best talent from American indie cinema Read more...

Farewell, My Queen

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013

Rating: 4/5 1789. The people are rebelling. Versailles is about to fall. Marie Antoinette, wilfully blind to the chaos around her, spends her days perusing the 18th-century equivalents of Vogue and chasing her chambermaids. Proving there is life in the period drama still, Farewell, My Queen Read more...

Twice Born

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013

Rating: 2/5 The trope of love blossoming amid war is as old as cinema itself, with many of these films achieving classic status (Casablanca, Atonement, The English Patient – to name a few). Plenty more, however, have struggled to depict romance against the backdrop of conflict without lapsing Read more...

Maori Boy Genius

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013

Rating: 3/5 Documentaries often struggle to find the delicate balance between good storytelling and mere exploitation – a challenge made all the more difficult when the subject-matter revolves around children. Such is the difficulty faced by Maori Boy Genius, a competent, intelligent Read more...

Pietra Brettkelly

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013

Maori Boy Genius examines a year in the life of 16-year-old Maori boy wonder, Ngā Raūira Pumanawawhiti, an adolescent, Yale student and future Prime Minister. The film’s director, Pietra Brettkelly, discusses Ngā Raūira’s life pathway, the gamble of documentary filmmaking, and Read more...

American Psycho (2000)

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013

The story behind American Psycho’s adaptation from page to screen is almost as troubled and manic as the titular character. Based on Bret Easton Ellis’ seminal work on the moral and materialist woes of 1980s Wall Street America, the work was initially labelled “misogynistic garbage” and “snuff” by Read more...

Performance

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 21st April 2013

Like Lex’s pseudo-political banter or a Unicol girl’s acquisition of the fresher five, it’s a certainty that Oscar winners will undo much of their good work with subsequent awful films. While Performance (released elsewhere as A Late Quartet) never reaches the murky depths of a Halle Berry/Catwoman Read more...

Liberal Arts

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013

Hollywood doesn’t tend to capture the “university experience” (for lack of a less cringeworthy term) with much accuracy or success. Mostly consisting of American Pie-esque comedies or 90s trash like The Skulls, the genre doesn’t quite work. Liberal Arts (the stateside term for a BA) succeeds where Read more...