Film

Cathy Come Home wasn’t made to inform, it was made to confront. When it premiered as part of the BBC’s Wednesday Play series back in November ‘66, 12 million people – a quarter of the British population at that time – tuned in to see Ken Loach’s seminal social-realist masterwork. The reaction from audiences was remarkable, provoking public outrage and prompting major discussions within the political sphere: donations to the charity Shelter surged in the days that followed the transmission...

By Michael McNulty Jack Clayton’s horror classic The Innocents, released in 1961 and based on (by way of William Archibald’s play) Henry James’ 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw, is a mysterious and haunting classic Victorian ghost story. The script, which passed through a number of hands, finally ended up in those of Truman Capote who helped to deliver it in its final form. Miss Giddens, played with a subtle restraint that belies an underlying sexual repression by an...

By Michael McNulty Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist - 2008 Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist may rub many the wrong way, primarily because seeing Michael Cera play yet another straight edge, hipster, sad-sack geekily fumbling through adolescence is a test of patience. But, let it test you. Nick (Michael Cera), bassist and only straight member of all gay rock band, The Jerk Offs, pining after evil ex-girlfriend Triss, spends a Manhattan night chasing elusive, super-cool, secret gig playing band, Where’s...

After The Storm is a moving, yet unsentimental portrayal of inter-generational relationships, fraught family dynamics, and the fragility of the human condition. Part time father Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) spends his limited income on gambling, instead of child maintenance, and longs to rekindle the love lost when his ex-wife (Yoko Make) divorced him. His tiny one-room apartment wall may be filled with post-it notes of ideas, but his glory days as a successful author are long gone, and his job as...

Setting a film in an orphanage, one expects a tale filled with suffering. My Life As A Courgette is a creative accomplishment, managing to be heartwarming and light, even when it’s touching upon the dark subject matter of childhood pain and abandonment. This beautifully animated film is based on a novel by French writer Gilles Paris, and director Claude Barras and screenwriter Céline Sciamma have skilfully managed to create a tender coming of age story, where the loss and abuse...

By Michael McNulty Location, location, location! Here are five films in which the city plays an integral part. 25th Hour – New York City, New York Monty Brogan, a midlevel drug dealer, spends his final hours before beginning a seven year prison sentence for possession and dealing, with his with his girlfriend and friends. This is as much a film about loyalty, betrayal, missed opportunity and consequences as it is a film about New York. New York is familiar territory...

By Michael McNulty John Goldschmidt’s Dough, penned by first time scriptwriters Jonathon Benson and Jez Freedman, feels like an afterschool special that’s trying to take on too much. Race, religion, culture and age, the differences, the divisions, the need to look past them all and come together is what this film is all about, with a “save the shop” thread running through the middle. Nat (Jonathan Pryce), an aging Jewish baker, with a dwindling customer base runs the risk of...

By Linda Marric Directed by Xiaogang Feng and staring Chinese superstar Feng Xiaogang, I am Not Madam Bovary is a film like no other film you’ve seen before. This beautifully crafted and unusually shot film is everything you’d want from a social commentary film. It touches on themes ranging from female empowerment, bureaucracy and state corruption, and it does this with a huge amount of humour and clever subtext. Shot partly in a circular frame, the film isn’t just technically...

By Linda Marric What more is there to be said about The Beatles that hasn’t already been said before. In It Was 50 Years Ago Today! The Beatles: Sgt Pepper and Beyond, which by all accounts has the clunkiest title for a documentary you could ever think of, director Alan G. Parker offers a rather disappointing, overly long, and altogether messy account of the band during the making of the eponymous album. The film also offers a look behind the...