Tag Archives: Film

Director: Tomer Heymann Reviewer: Richard Maguire Pornography has rarely been seen as an art, but in recent years this view has changed bringing with it a new academic interest in the genre. Soon Netflix will release its Circus of Books, a film by Rachel Mason about a porn shop in West Hollywood while Jon Ronson’s podcasts about the sex industry ...

Director: Rachel Mason Reviewer: Richard Maguire Within every family there are secrets, but rarely is that secret that your parents own a gay hard-core porn shop. Filmmaker Rachel Mason found out in school that Circus of Books, her parents’ bookshop in L.A., didn’t stock books about circuses. Later in life when she discovered that the shop was about to be ...

Writer and Director: Tom Cullen Reviewer: Richard Maguire British films have held their own at this year’s London Film Festival. Despite tiny budgets, British directors have made movies just as good as those boasting budgets of millions. Pink Wall, the directorial debut by actor Tom Cullen was made with £100,000 and was shot in nine days. Nevertheless, his film charting ...

Writer: Jenni Fagan Director: Debbie Hannan Reviewer: Dominic Corr Panopticon: noun. A historical building, most often a windowed prison turning in on itself, allowing a sense of visual connection. The inhabitants are on view at all times. Never really themselves, their thoughts the only thing kept apart from their keepers. It is also the titular building in which Jenni Fagan’s ...

Writer and Director: Gerard Johnson Reviewer: Maryam Philpott A film about a male mid-life crisis, a new-found desire to go to the gym and the latent violence in all of us may not sound like a winner and in a year in which the representation of female film-makers at the London Film Festival has reached 40%, Muscle may even sound ...

Writer: Oliver Hermanus and Jack Sidey Director: Oliver Hermanus Reviewer: Richard Maguire The Best Film Award category at this year’s BFI London Film Festival includes some stunning films, including the well-deserved winner Monos. Also up for consideration was the South African drama Moffie, which traces a boy’s life as he is conscripted into the army in the early ‘80s. In ...

Writer and Director: Ala Eddine Slim Reviewer: Richard Maguire Tlamess is the oddest film at this year’s BFI London Film Festival. Coming from Tunisia, Tlamess is almost two films, as each hour of its running time is completely different. The second act is almost too hard to swallow. The first hour of this stunningly shot film is almost conventional as ...

Writer and Director: Billie Piper Reviewer: Maryam Philpott Billie Piper’s directorial and screenwriting debut is one of the strangest films at the London Film Festival dealing with the chaotic perspective of a single mother looking for love. But in our post-Fleabag world, the protagonist is messy, flawed and not entirely likeable. Rare Beasts is weaker on plot and struggles to ...