Tag Archives: Romance

Review: The Handmaiden (2016)

Posted on May 2, 2017 by

THE HANDMAIDEN is unmistakably a Park Chan-wook film. A polished tale of control featuring sadistic torture and plot-reevaluating twists, this is far beyond the ordinary bodice-ripper. During the Japanese occupation of Korea, a thief (Kim Tae-ri) masquerades as a handmaiden … Continue reading →

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Looking Back and Looking Forward: 2016, Part 2

Posted on January 1, 2017 by

Here are the very best, and the very worst films I’ve seen this year. MOONLIGHT, LA LA LAND and MANCHESTER BY THE SEA aren’t out in the UK for another few weeks, so don’t look for them here. Absent also … Continue reading →

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Review: Love & Friendship (2016)

Posted on June 14, 2016 by

It’s Jane Austen, but not quite as we know it. Whit Stillman’s LOVE & FRIENDSHIP adapts one of the titanically influential novelist’s lesser-known and unfinished stories (originally titled LADY SUSAN) and the result is a film that is both delicate … Continue reading →

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Review: Brooklyn (2015)

Posted on May 9, 2016 by

If there was one thing I wasn’t expecting in a swooning transatlantic romance it was the sight of Saoirse Ronan humiliatingly relieving herself in a bucket. Said scene takes place during a harrowing stormy Atlantic crossing early on in the … Continue reading →

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Review: Carol (2015)

Posted on February 11, 2016 by

When the awards come for CAROL, and come they will, it’ll be impossible (and unfair) to split Blanchett and Mara. One cannot exist without the other – the reason both actors work so well on screen how skillfully they play … Continue reading →

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Review: Cinderella (2015)

Posted on November 11, 2015 by

Did you really have to put the talking mice in it again, Disney? Rodents shouldn’t have facial expressions! I’ve never really had that much affection for Walt’s 1950 animated “classic” – I always found it a bit simpering and wet. … Continue reading →

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Review: Far From the Madding Crowd (2015)

Posted on May 16, 2015 by

In the latest adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s groundbreaking period romance, Thomas Vinterberg directs, David Nicholls adapts the novel, and Carey Mulligan is our Bathsheba. Bathsheba Everdene’s (Mulligan) fortunes change when she inherits a relative’s manor house and farmland, and she … Continue reading →

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Review: Pompeii (2014)

Posted on October 27, 2014 by

Well, that was disappointing. When it was announced an all-out modern blockbuster was being made based on the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, I thought, what could go wrong? You’ve got inbuilt human pathos, the chance to … Continue reading →

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Review: Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013)

Posted on June 3, 2014 by

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR stole the show at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, with critics showering it with praise for the sterling work of writer-director Abdellatif Kechiche, and particularly the film’s two leads Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux. With … Continue reading →

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Film Confessional #4: Lost in Translation

Posted on October 7, 2013 by

I have a confession to make…I really don’t like LOST IN TRANSLATION. Sofia Coppola’s critically applauded, Oscar-winning mediation on life, love and other stuff not only didn’t connect with me on an emotional, intellectual, or philosophical level, but I often … Continue reading →

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