In cinema, drug and alcohol addiction is often treated like the darkest iteration of Chekhov’s gun: if someone says they’re in recovery in the first act, expect them to relapse in the second. Because of this narrative cliche, very few films directly grapple with the realities of rehabilitation, and that rather than being an end…
Tag: film festival
74th Cannes Film Festival: “Bloody Oranges” Review
There’s a reason the “everything is connected” brand of big screen storytelling is widely mocked. Although the likes of Robert Altman’s Short Cuts and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia managed to find profundity in the semi-interlinking lives of vast ensembles, films such as Paul Haggis’ Crash and the collected works of Alejandro González Iñárritu have made…
23rd Udine Far East Film Festival: “Money Has Four Legs” Review
Wai Bhone (Okkar Dat Khe) sits across from his producer in his office. His producer pours over Wai Bhone’s latest film script. He crosses out lines and spits out suggestions – cut out smoking scenes – they set a bad example, make the criminals more polite – we must show how polite Burmese people are,…
23rd Udine Far East Film Festival – “Kundo: Age of the Rampant” Review
While not as stylistically apparent as Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), Kundo: Age of the Rampant by Yoon Jong-bin is the second highest budget South Korean film, made by using western conventions. The film’s plot is firmly embedded in the late Joseon period and deals with a gang of thieves called…
Sundance Film Festival: “Pleasure” Review
Film festivals carry an element of prestige, despite being one of the worst possible ways to watch and assess movies. When you’re watching a minimum of four films a day, films that would otherwise captivate you under normal circumstances become schedule fillers, the festival experience making it easy to wax lyrical about the work that…
The 25th Busan International Film Festival Selections “School Town King” and “Sister Sister Run” Simultaneous Screening and GV with Thailand and Vietnam!
The 25th Busan International Film Festival, which opened on October 21st (Wed), screens its selections School Town King (Thailand) and Sister Sister (Vietnam) simultaneously in Busan and the local countries. It also has a special event where audiences in both countries can converse together through the online GV (Guest Visit). The Busan International Film Festival creates a new type…
Rocks Review
There has always been an enormous pressure on teenage girls to mature beyond their years, much more so than their male counterparts. This is usually pinned down to either biology or the existence of archaic gender roles but nevertheless, it results in girls spending more time picking up on the caregiving and domestic responsibilities often…
BlackStar Film Festival Announces Full Lineup, Ticketing, and More for 2020 Festival
BlackStar Film Festival, the world’s premier celebration of Black, Brown, and Indigenous film and video artists, is pleased to announce the full lineup of films for the 2020 program, which will take place August 20-26, 2020. In response to COVID-19, the ninth edition of the festival will be presented entirely online this year. This year’s…
22nd Udine Far East Film Festival: In Conversation with Eunsoo Cho, Cinematographer of ‘Victim(s)’
Eunsoo Cho, born and raised in Seoul, Korea, has been an avid film lover since she was very young. She studied at the Korean National University of Arts, and received her M.F.A at the School of Cinematic Arts in the University of Southern California. In both schools, her focus was cinematography. Throughout the years, many…
70th Berlin International Film Festival: Yalda – A Night For Forgiveness Review
It took a while for Iranian cinema to come to light, nonetheless, this doesn’t mean that there haven’t been any works worth paying attention to. With Abbas Kiarostami, Rakhshān Banietemad, Bahram Beyzai, Dariush Mehrjui, and Asghar Farhadi paving the way for worldwide recognition, Iranian cinema became a frequent ‘guest’ at many prestigious film festivals. Although…
69th Berlin Film Festival: Hellhole Review
Hellhole, Bas Devos’ second feature, is a draining and frank look at the trauma inflicted upon Brussels residents following the March 2016 bombings. It delivers an episodic and fragmented depiction of a hollow, sceptical and disconnected city – filled with individuals struggling in their own way with grief and isolation. Hellhole follows the story of…
13th London Korean Film Festival: Old Love Review
After living in Canada for many years, Yoon-hee returns to her home country of South Korea to visit her mother who has dementia. Taking a cigarette break outside Incheon airport, she runs into Jung-soo, an old college sweetheart. The pair is surprised to see each other and agrees to catch-up about the last twenty years…
3rd London East Asia Film Festival: In Conversation with Kim Yoon-seok of ‘Dark Figure of Crime’
Kim Yoon-seok is a renowned South Korean actor with an extensive filmography and even a few TV-series (K-dramas) under his belt, even though he initially debuted in 1988 as a theatre actor, in the role of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, originally portrayed by Marlon Brando on Broadway. It is impossible not to…
The 61st BFI London Film Festival: Journey’s End Review
Journey’s End, by English playwright R.C Sherriff, was performed for the first time at the Apollo Theatre in 1928 with Lawrence Olivier – an emerging young actor at the time – in one of the lead roles. Within a short period of time the show was moved to a West End theatre where it ran for…
VIEW OF THE ARTS 