REVIEWS

From Peter Medak’s ‘The Ruling Class,’ to Stephen Frears’ ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ and Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘The Favourite,’ cinema has long enjoyed taking aim at the aristocracy. Stripped of grandeur and etiquette, the toffs and blue bloods are revealed as petty, shallow and ridiculous. Across these films, aristocracy is shown to be a well-worn stage on which vanity and self-interest are endlessly performed in elaborate costume. Peter Glanz’s ‘Savage House’ is the latest to skewe

Kim Jee-woon is a cinematic shapeshifter. From the explosive kimchi western 'The Good, The Bad, The Weird,' to comedies like 'The Quiet Family' and 'The Foul King,' as well as the violent, hyper-stylish 'A Bittersweet Life' and 'I Saw the Devil,' he has refused to be pigeon-holed and consistently entertained. A genre-hopping madman, Kim approaches each project with a restless creativity, making his work impossible to predict and endlessly rewarding to watch. His 2023 featur

Unlike his friend and classmate from the Higher Directing Course at Mosfilm, Georgiy Daneliya, Aleksandr Sery never had the opportunity to become a household name in Soviet cinema. He only made five features, and although one of them, ‘Gentlemen of Fortune’, became a cultural landmark, its production coincided with a devastating prognosis. During the making of that film, Sery was diagnosed with leukaemia, steadily eroding his health and ability to work. As the illness progres

There truly is something special about a cinema- or at least, there used to be. In times gone by, the local movie house wasn’t just a place to watch films: it was a communal space where strangers sat shoulder to shoulder, becoming a temporary family in the dark. Entire towns gathered to feel the same heartbeat for a few fleeting hours; for that brief span, everybody- no matter how different- was on the same wavelength, transfixed by the magic-lantern glow of film. Cinemas

Corporate, male-CEO culture has long been fertile ground for cinema. Filmmakers have repeatedly returned to the boardroom as a stage for cruelty, ambition and the performance of masculinity. From the venomous mentorship of ‘Swimming with Sharks’ to the calculated misogyny of ‘In the Company of Men’ and the narcissistic violence of ‘American Psycho’, these stories expose a world where “locker-room talk” becomes corporate strategy, and emotional detachment is treated as a profe

Sometimes an actor’s entire career pivots on a single film. Bruce Willis transformed from the wise-cracking charmer of ‘Moonlighting’ into a full-blown action icon with ‘Die Hard’, while Liam Neeson unexpectedly carved out a second life as a tough-as-nails leading man after ‘Taken.’ Although she made ‘Æon Flux,’ years before, Charlize Theron stunned audiences as the badass Furiosa in ‘Mad Max: Fury Road,’ and Bob Odenkirk rewrote expectations with ‘Nobody’, revealing a steely

Confucius once stated that “music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without”, and modern research bears that out. Scientists have shown that music can lift our mood, activating the brain’s reward pathways, lowering stress hormones, while creating a shared emotional space that feels both grounding and restorative. As Jean Paul Friedrich Richter said, it is “the moonlight in the gloomy night of life;” a salve for the soul. Few films understand this more

Action heroes dominated 1980s and 90s cinema marquees. Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis were at the top of their games, while Jackie Chan became an international icon. Superstars like Harrison Ford, Kurt Russell and Mel Gibson balanced action roles with major dramatic work, and even Steven Seagal was taken seriously (for a little while, anyway). Jean-Claude Van Damme was one such name in lights- the flexible Belgian dynamo who combined Willis’ charm with Chan’s acrob

Stories of isolation and survival have long served as mirrors for the societies that produce them. First published in 1719, Daniel Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’ set the template for the lone castaway wrestling with both nature and self. Later works, from J. M. Barrie’s ‘The Admirable Crichton’ to William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’, used the desert-island scenario to interrogate class, authority and the ease with which social order gives way to brutality. By the late 20th centu

Yasujirō Ozu is spoken of with the kind of reverence reserved for the cinematic greats, though that wasn’t always the case. During his lifetime, he was respected in Japan as a meticulous craftsman of domestic dramas, yet was not recognised as such globally. His films circulated little outside of his homeland, and his quiet, elliptical style- featuring low camera positions, still frames and an almost ceremonial sense of rhythm- was far from the international image of “Japanese

Loneliness is one of the major crises of modern Japan. In the middle of bustling streets and packed commuter trains, an increasing number of people feel profoundly disconnected from those around them. Social pressure, economic precarity and the relentless pace of urban life have pushed many to the margins- with some retreating entirely into their rooms as ‘hikikomori’, shut off from the world for months or even years. Out of this landscape of isolation, an unusual industry ha

Although they seem ubiquitous nowadays, film remakes and reboots are really nothing new. In fact, they go as far back as 1896, when Georges Méliès remade Louis Lumière's 43 second short ‘Partie de Cartes’ as the comparatively expansive 67 second ‘Une Partie de Cartes.’ In the decades since, Hollywood has churned out countless remakes- a few inspired, many mediocre and plenty that never should’ve slithered onto screens in the first place. While something of a commercial succe

At the heart of Soviet comedies stand three towering figures: Leonid Gaidai, Eldar Ryazanov and Georgiy Daneliya. Widely considered the triumvirate of the genre, their films often blend wry humour with pointed social commentary. However, while comparable in stature, their sensibilities diverge sharply. Gaidai revelled in anarchic slapstick, Ryazanov excelled in bittersweet satire, and Daneliya- perhaps the most quietly profound of the three- infused his comedies with a gentle

Park Chan-wook is widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers working today. A versatile multi-talent, he has dabbled in a variety of genres, while leaving his own unmistakable authorial stamp on each. From the operatic revenge of ‘Oldboy’ and the rest of the so-called Vengeance Trilogy, to the melancholic machinations of ‘Decision to Leave’, and even the off-kilter eroticism of ‘Thirst,’ his films are united by an enduring fascination with obsession, violence and moral r

Comedian and writer Neal Brennan once remarked “there’s nothing worse than trying to be funny and not being funny.” Countless supposed comedies have tried too hard and failed even harder, aberrations like the disastrous spy spoof ‘Leonard Part 6,’ ‘Son of the Mask’ and the irredeemable ‘Movie 43.’ Torments to sit through, they stand as monuments to the painful truth that laughter cannot be forced. Christopher Cain’s 1997 effort ‘Gone Fishin’ is one such disaster; a generic co

Ever since bursting onto the scene with 1998’s raucous ‘The Quiet Family’, Kim Jee-woon has been one of the most exciting filmmakers...

Although considered horror royalty, Stephen King has never been pigeonholed to the genre. From ‘Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption’...

Parody is a delicate business. Done well, it dances the line between homage and mockery, sharp enough to skewer its target but light...

It’s often said that a film is made in the edit. Sometimes, though, that’s where it dies. A misstep in pacing, a scene trimmed too far, a...

The ever-versatile Nicolas Cage remains one of cinema’s most unpredictable delights. For some, his grounded turns in films like ‘Pig’ and...