Film

Reviewed by Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada   Natalie (Isabelle Huppert) is a high school philosophy teacher, and although she spends a great deal reading and thinking about freedom and the best way of life, her own life takes place in rather narrow limits. Like, as she says, most intellectuals of her generation, she used to have radical ideas in her youth, even travelled to the USSR, but she has long left desires of starting a revolution behind and is comfortable in...

Reviewed by Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada “It's not science fiction”, says the US Air Force recruitment video. And thousands of young Americans are seduced by the idea of adventure and honour and join up. Like Heather, whose job it was to analyse drone imagery. All day long she'd watch Afghans go about their daily lives, trying to make out if they were civilians or targets. She'd watch them be blown to pieces, she'd watch civilians die, soldiers die. Even though she...

Reviewed by Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada A young boy is kidnapped and sped along the highway through the Southern US States in a 1970s Chevrolet. But his kidnappers are his father and a good friend, saving the boy from religious fanatics. Nothing is what it seems in Midnight Special. Slowly we learn what is special about young Alton Meyer, why both the FBI and a religious cult are interested in him, why he is wearing protective goggles and is never allowed...

Reviewed by Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada The opening film of the Berlin Film Festival, is an unambiguous celebration of film - Joel and Ethan Coen take on Old Hollywood in their newest all-star comedy, Hail Caesar. Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), a studio "fixer", runs from one emergency to the next in the chaotic world of the film business in the early 1950s, the later years of Hollywood's golden age. He gets the stars out of trouble, appeases irate directors, and keeps...

Review by Miranda Schiller/@mirandadadada   Enfant terrible of French Cinema, driving force of the Film Noir and Nouvelle Vague movements, Godard is the name you drop when wanting to appear knowledgeable and Europhile. And with good reason. Time to revisit (or discover) some of his most influential films in this newly released Blu Ray box set. It certainly gives an indication of Godard's bandwidth of themes and artistic expressions, from his most well-known, the iconic Breathless, to the gloomy dystopia Alphaville,...

Review by Adam Turner/@AdamTurnerPR Happy, uplifting and easy-watching Chronic is not. In fact, It's more like being drenched by a cannon loaded with misery. However, Michel Franco's melancholic drama does help to bring to attention some of life's most agonising realities - from cancer and HIV to euthanasia, death and everything in between. Franco, best known for the disturbing After Lucia (2012), should be commended for bravely confronting such anxiety-provoking issues - many of which are seldom portrayed through the...

The Martian's space botany theme has been affirmed this week after US astronaut Scott Kelly confirmed that a zinnia plant had flowered on the International Space Station (ISS). Ridley Scott's film, due for UK release on February 8, is based on space botanist Mark Watney's incredible survival on Mars where he was able to grow and cultivate potatoes. And the concept may not be so far fetched after all. Commander Scott Kelly has announced on Twitter that the “first ever flower grown in space" has made its debut, adding:...

The most baffling aspect of the recent all white Oscars nominations was not the lack of ethnic minorities. That's par for the course thanks to the ageing, mostly white and male Academy voters. The really disturbing part was reaction from some online commentators, including journalists, who criticised the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag. A common complaint came from self-styled liberals, the kind of posing social justice warriors who claim to be “colour blind”. Apparently, criticising the world's most prominent awards show for failing...

by Miranda Hazrati/@mirandahazrati The UK has always produced a plethora of quality films which have captured the imaginations of audiences across the globe from iconic and cult films such as ‘Abigail’s Party’’  to box office smashes such as ‘The Theory Of Everything’, the UK film industry continues to thrive with UK actors and directors increasingly in demand. Here are ten of the best:    1 - Four Weddings And A Funeral The quintessential British film ‘Four Weddings and A Funeral’...