REVIEWS

They just don’t make films like they used to. That’s been said for a long time, and for a long time it’s been true. Nowadays, if a film has an original story, it’s a rarity. If it has decently written dialogue, it’s a miracle. We look back to the films of the 80s and 90s and wonder where the magic went, but travel back further and you're reminded just how effortless Hollywood could make it all seem. Especially when Howard Hawks was around. Roger Ebert called Hawks “one of t

Sometimes, a director's greatest success becomes their biggest burden; a benchmark every subsequent work is forced to confront. Although he arguably made better films later in his career, Orson Welles spent a lifetime living in the shadow of ‘Citizen Kane.’ Steven Spielberg's ‘Disclosure Day’ was inevitably measured against his earlier science-fiction classics (and found wanting), while M. Night Shyamalan’s work has rarely been allowed to escape comparisons to ‘The Sixth Sens

The legendary Gary Cooper's career came in waves. After spending the 1930s and '40s as one of Hollywood's biggest stars, his fortunes dipped, before 1952’s ‘High Noon’ revived his career in spectacular fashion. Alas, the resurgence proved temporary; by the end of the decade, he was left disillusioned. In 1960, Cooper lamented "Nothing I've done lately, the past eight years or so, has been especially worthwhile... Some of the pictures I've made recently I'm genuinely ashamed o

For a time, Richard Burton was practically a God. However, after reaching the height of his film career in the mid-1960s, his fortunes began to decline. A series of commercial disappointments and changing audience tastes diminished his standing as one of Hollywood's leading stars. Although still capable of delivering powerful performances, his career never fully regained the momentum of its earlier peak. It was during this period of professional uncertainty that Burton took

Olivia Wilde's directing career has been anything but predictable. She burst onto the scene with the acclaimed ‘Booksmart’ in 2019, before the underwhelming ‘Don't Worry Darling’ became better known for its off-screen drama than its on-screen ambitions. Nevertheless, Wilde remains an intriguing filmmaker, continuing to explore different genres while taking creative risks. She returns to the director's chair with ‘The Invite’, an adaptation of Cesc Gay’s 2020 black comedy ‘Sen

Sonny Chiba is a legend. The action superstar began acting in the early 60s, rapidly making a name for himself as a charismatic, martial arts madman. By the 1970s, he was one of Japan's biggest stars, spearheading a wave of brutally violent action flicks, influencing generations of filmmakers, including Takashi Miike and Quentin Tarantino. From ‘The Street Fighter’ to ‘The Killing Machine,’ ‘Kill Bill Vol. 1’ and ‘The Storm Riders,’ Chiba showcased his talents across martial