Tag Archives: Film

Writer: Martyn Hesford Director: Adrian Noble Reviewer: Dave Cunningham It is surprising that it has taken so long for the life of artist L S Lowry to be dramatised on the cinema screen. After all, his story has inspired a ballet, stage and radio plays and a number of documentaries. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Martyn Hesford’s script for ...

Director: Jeanie Finlay Reviewer: Richard Maguire The male seahorse has quite a burden to carry. Not only does he have to carry the female’s eggs in a pouch until they hatch, releasing them into the ocean fully developed, but also the seahorse now stands as a symbol for the unpredictability of gender roles in the modern age. Jeanie Finlay’s beautifully ...

Writers: Claudio Giovannesi, Roberto Saviano and Maurizio Braucci Director: Claudio Giovannesi Reviewer: Richard Maguire Like a cross between The Godfather and Quadrophenia, Claudio Giovannesi’s Piranhas certainly lives up to its name as it follows the lives of Neapolitan teenagers attracted by the glamour of crime. Tattooed and streetwise, these boys bite, and soon, like the Amazonian fish, they develop a ...

Writer and Director:  Keith Behrman Reviewer:  Richard Maguire There’s no shortage of coming-out films, but they are still necessary, especially when there’s a revival of right-wing thinking across the world. However, Giant Little Ones, a Canadian film showing at BFI Flare, London’s LGBTQ+ film festival, is not a straightforward coming-out film. It could be argued that it’s not a coming-out ...

 Writer and Director: Doug Spearman Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Just before his film was shown at BFI Flare, London’s LGBTQ+ film festival, Doug Spearman confessed that he was surprised that the programmers had labelled it as a comedy. He thought he’d made a love story. But, ultimately, From Zero to I Love You is a combination of both these genres. In short, ...

Writer and Director:  Vincente Alves do Ó Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Portuguese film Sunburn really split the critics at its press screening this week at the BFI Flare Festival, London’s biggest LGBTQ+ film festival. Some walked out while others kept glancing at their watches. After the film, those who had stayed were trying to extol Sunburn’s virtues to those who had threatened ...

Creator: Wilkie Branson   Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Dancer Wilkie Branson’s new film TOM is full of foreboding and intrigue.  Shadowy figures populate stunning landscapes and dystopian cities in this story of a man trying to find his place in the world. The film certainly looks good, and if Keanu Reeves were to make a dance movie then TOM might be the result. ...

Writer & Director: Ingmar Bergman Music: Erik Nordgren Reviewer: Rich Jevons Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället) from 1957 is written and directed by the Swedish Svengali Ingmar Bergman and tackles the eternal question of our mortality and the meaning of our lives, especially as one approaches old age. Professor Isak Borg (played by silent cinema actor-director Victor Sjöström) is a 78-year-old widower. ...