Blu-ray: The Strange One (1957)Powerhouse Films and their Indicator label seem to find the most interesting(ly odd) films to release, lost ‘classics’ of cinema that have passed most film fans by. The Strange One, adapted from Calder Willinghamis’ novel and stage play, was made in 1957 and was the film debut of Ben Gazzara and […]
Blu-ray & DVD: The Night Clerk (2020) Bart (Tye Sheridan) works the night shift at a local motel, and during his shifts he spies on guests by watching video feeds from camera’s fitted in some rooms. Creepy? Yep, however Bart has an excuse; he’s watching to learn how to be ‘normal’ as he has Asperger’s. […]
Blu-ray: Why Don’t You Just Die (2018) Wide eyed Matvei (Aleksandr Kuznetsov) turns up at a door in a Russian apartment block, hiding a hammer behind his back. He’s nervous, he’s there at the behest of his girlfriend Olya (Evgeniya Kregzhde) and his intent is murder. Andrei (Vitaliy Khaev) answers the door, he’s a burly, […]
DVD: A Bigger Splash (1973)A Bigger Splash was filmed in 1973 and is a British biographical documentary film about David Hockney’s breakup with his then partner Peter Schlesinger from 1970 to 1973. Directed by Jack Hazan, and featuring many of Hockney’s circle including designers Celia Birtwell and Ossie Clark, artist Patrick Procktor, gallery owner John Kasmin […]
DVD & Digital: The Windsors (Series 3) (2020) The Royal Family: loved by millions the world over, perhaps not so much in Britain. Obscenely wealthy, out of touch with 99.9% of people, entitled, thick as shit and all of them pointless, headed by a monarch who has never done anything of note, whose contribution to […]
Cinema & Digital: Escape From Pretoria (2020) Based on the 2003 book Inside Out: Escape from Pretoria Prison by Tim Jenkin, this film is based on the real prison escape by three young political prisoners from an apartheid era South African jail in 1979. Daniel Radcliffe plays white ANC activist Tim Jenkin, who, along with his friend Stephen […]
Blu-ray: Kansas City (1996) In early 30’s Kansas City, Johnny O’Hara (Dermot Mulroney) rubs burnt cork on his face, and aided by a taxi driver robs an out of town gambler of his money. Local black gambling boss, Seldom Seen (Harry Belafonte) is not happy and holds Johnny hostage while he decides how to kill […]
Blu-ray: The Pillow Book (1996)Peter Greenaway is well known as a golden director of languid art house movies that enrapture the viewer with their colour, emotion and exceptional mise en scène. The Pillow Book tells the story of Nagiko (Vivian Wu) who becomes obsessed with writing in all its forms after her father (Ken Ogata) […]
When ‘Pills an’ Thrills and Bellyaches’ came out in 1990, I was living in Los Angeles writing about whatever new thrash group was around, so the Manchester (“Madchester”) scene with its new wave of music totally passed me by. It was on my return to Wales and seeing my younger brother and sister in dayglow […]
DVD & Digital: The Trial of Christine Keeler (2019)Most people under 50 will have no idea what the ‘Profumo Affair’ was, so the BBC making a series about it was surprising, but then in an age where no one really knows for sure how many children our Prime Minister Boris Johnson has with various concubines, […]
