Author: The Reviews Hub - Film

Writers: Diego Lerman, Maria Meira and Luciana De Mello Director: Diego Lerman Literary people have mixed experiences in the classroom. DH Lawrence regarded his pupils as ‘a pack of unruly hounds’. Kate Clanchy, on the other hand, successfully  encourages hers to write poetry. In Diego Lerman’s The Substitute , Lucio, a college professor and novelist, has to convince a class of underprivileged teenagers in Buenos Aires that there is any point to literature. At the same time he’s dealing with a recent break-up, a truculent adolescent daughter and an ailing father. On top of his family issues he gets involved…

Director: Victoria Fiore Director Victoria Fiore has talked elsewhere of the extraordinary emergence of her documentary, Nascondino (Hide and Seek) from an open-ended project running a series of workshops with street kids in Naples over six years. The resulting film is astonishing – tender, intimate, often funny but ultimately tragic. It centres on a deprived area of Naples, Quarteri Spagnoli, traditionally associated with poverty and crime. Fiore focuses on a young lad, Entoni – nine years old when filming starts – who wants to be an actor. Despite being an absolute natural in front of the camera – unselfconsciously cheeky…

Writers: Adil El Arbi, Billal Fallah, Kevin Meul and Jan van Dyck Directors: Adil El Arbi, Billal Fallah Rebel is a gripping action thriller by writer-directors Adil El Arbi and Billal Fallah which uses the life of a young Belgian Muslim to illustrate the brutal rise of ISIS in Syria and the spread of radicalism. Kamal Wasaki, his mother, Leila, and young brother Nassim live in Brussels, in Molenbeek, the notoriously deprived area which became synonymous as a breeding group for jihadi fighters. But Kamal’s interest isn’t politics. He’s something of a local celebrity as rapper DJ KAWAS, living a…

Writer: Carl W.Lucas Director: Brett Donowho The Old Way certainly lives up to its name and is an old-fashioned Western about vengeance. Nicholas Cage must seek out the violent gang that kills his wife, and he takes along his 12-year-old daughter for the ride. The set-up has echoes of Luc Besson’s Léon where another 12-year-old girl learns how to shoot a gun, but Brett Donowho’s Western lacks the vibrancy of Besson’s thriller from 1994. Instead, The Old Way is slow and predictable. Located in a time where the Wild West is not as wild anymore, marshals now range across the…

Writers: Timothy Holland and Michael Mailer Director: Michael Maile Folks in Bare Hollow, Mississippi have a habit of turning on their car radios just in time to catch a hell-fire preacher demanding “Heaven or Hell – where will you be the minute you wake up dead?” This catches the imagination of one of them, who then repeats the question in a series of anonymous phone calls. This sounds like a reasonable premise for a supposedly comic thriller. But the truth is that for a film with so many plot twists, The Minute You Wake Up Dead is achingly ponderous. Ponderer-in-chief…

Writers: Joel Ferrari & Pete Wild Director: Dominic Brunt There aren’t many sub-genres in cinema that are as tricky to pull off successfully as horror-comedy. The delicate balance of juxtaposing real scares with genuine laughs is rarely achieved, particularly when both are so hard to get right by themselves to begin with. Among the few successful entries in the genre are Evil Dead 2 (1987) and The Cabin in the Woods (2011), but the benchmark for modern horror comedies remains John Landis’s 1981 masterpiece An American Werewolf in London. All of the films mentioned so far in this review are highly…

Written and directed by Maya Duverdier and Amélie van Elmbt Gentrification is the process whereby properties in a neighbourhood are renovated with a view to attracting a better class of, or wealthier, clientele often displacing the existing residents who are unable meet the higher cost of the improved dwellings. This usually applies to working-class communities but a new documentary from Maya Duverdier and Amélie van Elmbt shows the process taking effect in the Chelsea Hotel, which is often associated with Bohemian, artistic residents. The Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan has been immortalised in poem and song and on film and is…

Writer: David Henrie, Sienna Aquilini, Bug Hall and Pepe Portillo Director: David Henrie Tribute bands and jukebox musicals are an enjoyable way to spend an evening. There comes a point, however, where the audience must accept there are no surprises – the songs are exactly as on the albums and there are no unexpected covers. This Is the Year is very much a tribute to 1980’s teen movies and, as such, offers just what could be expected. At an early age Josh (Lorenzo James Henrie) becomes fixated upon 1980’s teen movies. His neighbour/ platonic best friend Molly (Vanessa Marano), with…