Film

Unless you’ve been living under a rock over the past few weeks, you would have heard countless accounts of people being terrified out of their wits by Ari Aster’s brilliant debut feature, Hereditary. Earlier this month, during the Sundance London film festival, The London Economic had a chance to chat to Ari about one of the most eagerly awaited films of the year, and the process he went through trying to make it. TLE: First of all, congratulations on such...

Three years after the release of his debut feature Mediterranea, Italian director Jonas Carpignanoreturns with his second film A Ciambra. The title refers to the region of Italy where the film is set. It is here that we find a community of Romanian gypsies who live on the periphery of society. Among them is Pio (Pio Amato), a 14 year old boy who is desperate to grow up and take part in the criminal activity that is the sole source...

On April 26, 1977, Studio 54 opened its doors for the first time to crowds desperate to get the other side of the velvet ropes and past the blacked out doors that kept them out.  For many, the name undoubtedly conjures up images of whirring disco balls, celebrities and the seductive allure of debauchery.  Here, on the sweaty pit of the dance floor, crowds of Quaalude popping, disco-beat boppers welcomingly fell face forward into a world of vice and hedonism....

Here, The London Economic talks to the author and entrepreneur Cometan, 19, whose fearless spirit led to the creation of a series of novels, a limited company, and 1.4million Twitter followers…before leaving high school.

With the success in 2017 of Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning, post-race horror Get Out, or more recently John Krasinski’s spine-chilling sci-fi hit A Quiet Place, it would be far too simplistic to speak of a sudden horror resurgence, especially when one considers that beyond the hype created around a few Hollywood-backed productions, horror fans have never really stopped consuming the genre in the same way they always have, and you only have to look at the continued success of horror themed film...

I didn’t grow up with Tina Turner’s music. The first time I was aware of her was through her 1991 blockbuster Simply The Best collection, which swept up the highlights of the second phase of her career and seemed to be in every single CD collection I saw in the 90s. It was probably this that meant I didn’t see What’s Love Got To Do With It? for some years after it came out, because my overriding experience of Turner at...

Sophie Brooks’ debut feature is a plucky heart-warmer that’s tender and beautifully observed. When Diana (Zosia Mamet) moves back to New York after a prolonged stay in London, she moves into her new apartment only to discover her ex-boyfriend lives in the flat below.  With a premise like that, Sophie Brooks’ debut feature, The Boy Downstairs, could quite easily have descended into the forgettable territory of low-budget, high concept rom-coms.  Instead, the director crafts a wonderfully tender and beautifully observed...

Andrew Kötting’s previous film, released this time last year, Edith Walks, paid homage to and told the story of Edith Swan Neck, the wife of King Harold.  Shot as an absurdist, quasi-experimental documentary, it followed Kötting and a band of merry travellers as they walked the 108 miles between Waltham Abbey to St. Leonards on Sea.  It was, in short, pish. Kötting returns with another experimental feature that blends narrative fiction with film essay in Lek and the Dogs.  And,...

Jurassic Park became the highest grossing film of all time when it was released in the summer of 1993. Its impact has been undeniable, as it ushered in the era of special effect laden blockbusters that we are still witnessing to this day. The original may have been followed by two disappointing sequels but the series roared back into life in 2015 with Jurassic World and returns once more with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The problem with the franchise’s sequels was that they were...