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Tag Archives: Black Comedy
Review: Parasite (2019)
I fell in love with the genre-hopping, tonally-tromboning work of South Korean firebrand Bong Joon-ho at university and ended up writing my dissertation on how his films represent fractured families and Korean culture. I’ve been waiting for PARASITE for what … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Black Comedy, Bong Joon-ho, Jang Hye-jin, Lee Sun-kyun, Parasite, Park So-dam, Song Kang-ho, The Host, Thriller, Trainspotting, World Cinema
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Border (2018) Review
Posted in Film, Film Review, The Film Magazine
Tagged Ali Abbasi, Black Comedy, Border, Eero Milonoff, Eva Melander, Fantasy, Horror
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Review: Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood (2019)
The release of a new Quentin Tarantino film is an event. Even if it’s not his 9th. It’s really not his 9th – by my count it’s either 10th or 11th. You generally know what to expect from QT, so … Continue reading
60s Review: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
When author Terry Pratchett wrote about his time working as a publicist for a nuclear plant, he described how he came to realise that there’s no funnier phrase than “two completely independent failsafe systems”. The extent to which everything goes … Continue reading
Posted in Classic Film, Film, Film Review
Tagged Black Comedy, Classic Film, Dr Strangelove, George C Scott, Peter Sellers, Satire, Stanley Kubrick, Sterling Hayden, Terry Pratchett, Tracy Reed
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The Fine Art of Black Comedy or Why It’s OK to Laugh When We Shouldn’t
Posted in Film, Film Feature, The Film Magazine
Tagged Black Comedy, Four Lions, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Memories of Murder
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Review in Brief: Paddleton (2019)
“An oncologist…that’s the cancer one?” Yes, PADDLETON is a “cancer movie”. It’s also an indie road movie involving two guys struggling to articulate their feelings. But I don’t think all that many of either look at both sides of terminal … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Black Comedy, Creep, Humpday, Mark Duplass, Paddleton, Ray Romano, Road Movie, Safety Not Guaranteed, The Big Sick
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Review: The Favourite (2018)
Queen Anne is a British monarch often overlooked, dismissed, forgotten. I’m into my history and I would have struggled to tell you much about her reign before watching THE FAVOURITE. The film isn’t a history lesson, that’s not what writer-director … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Biopic, Black Comedy, Drama, Emma Stone, Ex Machina, Historical Drama, Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, The Favourite, The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos
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Review in Brief: Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (2018)
The only implausible thing about Ben Wheatley’s latest jet-black dramedy is that any family would willingly submit to everyone being in the same location at the same time for anything other than a wedding or a funeral. We are sent … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Thoroughbreds (2017/18)
THOROUGHBREDS is made in its script. It’s deliciously dark and full of wittily pragmatic musings on humanity like “I have a perfectly healthy brain, it just doesn’t contain feelings”, and “The sawdust smells fantastic, but you’re still in a hamster … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Anton Yelchin, Anya Taylor-Joy, Black Comedy, Cory Finley, Olivia Cooke, Thoroughbreds
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Review in Brief: An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018)
I never did review THE GREASY STRANGLER. I’m not even sure I could. I think I might struggle to talk about AN EVENING WITH BEVERLY LUFF LINN as well. Jim Hosking’s follow-up is populated by similarly freakish characters and a … Continue reading
