“Sound of Metal” Review

Before he had started to notice his hearing deteriorate Ruben (Riz Ahmed) had been clean off heroin for four years, since around the same time he started to date his girlfriend and bandmate Lou (Olivia Cooke). Ruben is the drummer of the duo’s heavy metal band, Blackgammon. The pair drive around the country together in…

“Sweat” Review

Social media has been prevalent in our lives for more than a decade, although it feels like filmmakers are only now getting the hang of telling stories about how we exist online without succumbing to cheap moralising. This may be because a new wave of filmmakers who actively use and understand different social media platforms…

“Surge” Review

From Howard Beale in Network decrying everything that’s wrong with America after breaking down on air, to Michael Douglas’ William Foster finding himself railing against his place in the food chain in Falling Down, there’s been a long history of cinema depicting seemingly normal men cracking at the seams, unable to stay sane when faced…

“Censor” Review

The relationship between British filmmakers and the state censor, the BBFC, is an odd and fascinating one. In recent years, several directors have gone on the record to speak about how they show screenplays to the BBFC during their writing process, while the classification board itself even runs a podcast aiming to rehabilitate its image…

“Promising Young Woman” Review

Cassie (Carey Mulligan) lays sprawled across her seat at a local dive bar – lulling her head and slurring her words. She’s blistering drunk, all alone, and attracting the stares of a group of guys. ‘That is just asking for it’ one of them huffs, another one decides to go over to Cassie and offer…

23rd Udine Far East Film Festival Sets New Dates and Location

Among Asian film festivals that take place in Europe, the Udine Far East Film Festival is the cherry on the cake. Often filled with a superb film programme and unforgettable guests, the festival was defeated by the pandemic last year. Although it took place online, there were still great films to choose from, not many…

BFI Flare: LGBTQ+ Film Festival: “Rurangi” Review

No matter where you go in the world, rural areas are almost always more traditionally conservative than metropolitan ones. You’ve read the countless think pieces on behalf of the “forgotten America” that voted for Trump to the shock of the cities, and you’ve seen how the Conservative party has a stronghold on the British countryside,…

BlackStar Film Festival’s 10th edition to take place August 4-8, 2021.

BlackStar Projects, the premier organization celebrating visionary Black, Brown, and Indigenous film and media artists, is proud to announce that the next edition of their annual festival will take place August 4-8, 2021. The festival will be held virtually again in light of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. “So much has changed in the past decade, for…

BFI Flare: LGBTQ+ Film Festival: “Boy Meets Boy” Review

Much like how Pulp Fiction spawned an entire genre of poor imitators, Andrew Haigh’s 2011 film Weekend has a lot to answer for. The beautiful simplicity of that whirlwind gay romance seems effortless in the hands of such an accomplished filmmaker, to the extent that countless other filmmakers have seen it and assumed they too…

BFI Flare: LGBTQ+ Film Festival: “Valentina” Review

In Brazil, 82% of trans kids will drop out of school at some point during their education. Among these children is Valentina (Thiessa Woinbackk) a 17-year-old girl who’s just moved across the country with her mother Márcia (Guta Stresser) to start afresh in a new town and retake her sophomore year. However, problems arise when…