I can vividly remember watching Anchorman in the cinema. Going in with no expectations, I found myself in the throes of infectious, intense laughter throughout. That unexpected experience ranks among my favourite cinema memories. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues didn’t replicate that experience. It has its fair share of belly laughs – generally found in…
Epiphanies about art are few and far between. You remember them. So it goes with me and Grade 7 English, when we analysed George Orwell’s Animal Farm. As my teacher unpacked the meaning and symbolism of the novel, how it was an allegory for the Russian Revolution and the rise of Communism, how the exile…
10. Spartacus: War of the Damned – “Victory” Not the last finale on this list, “Victory” is a triumphant conclusion to a slightly overstuffed season of the great, underrated Spartacus. With a substantial list of casualties, “Victory” was defined by tragedy and, yes, victory, even if that victory was a moral one, not born of…
Wadjda is deeply influenced by cinematic history. Writer/director Haifaa al-Mansour has stated a significant influence on her film was neorealist cinema, and it’s not hard to see the influence of a film like Bicycle Thieves in this story of a young Saudi girl’s quest to purchase a bicycle, or the way al-Mansour’s camera creates a…
What Maisie Knew presents a unique perspective on domestic drama, telling the story of a bitter divorce and strained custody battle through the eyes of seven-year-old Maisie. This point-of-view keeps the film from feeling conventional despite its well-worn subject matter, but it also keeps the audience from gaining a deep insight into its characters. The…
I may not have written all that much about music here this year (in case you haven’t noticed, the focus of ccpopculture has been shifting gradually towards film at the expense of other media), but that doesn’t mean I’m not listening and, uh, listing. Here are my 10 favourite songs of the year: and the…
Only God Forgives is not a pleasant experience. Watching it is akin to letting viscous ichor fill your veins. It’s like a David Lynch take on a spaghetti-western tale of revenge; the deep rumbling bass tones, thick shadows and vibrant, hellish reds channel Lynch’s style. The dark, labyrinthine corridors that contain Julian (Ryan Gosling)’s Bangkok…
Brian de Palma’s work always has gigantic quotation marks about. He doesn’t tell stories; he makes “cinema.” His larger-than-life, garishly coloured style is best suited to big movies, stories of sex, violence and oversized emotions. On paper, his style seems perfectly suited to the lurid psychosexual thriller-cum-horror movie Dressed to Kill. There are some thrilling…
Let’s be honest: when you’re talking about classic movie monsters, werewolves are basically a cut-rate version of vampires. They’re an incarnation of all the same fears – loss of control, the savage nature of man, fear of sex (specifically, venereal diseases) – while being, for the most part, more ridiculous than scary. There are some…
Hey, couple reviews on websites other than this one. First is for The Spectacular Now over at The 500 Club. I really, really liked this one, and it’ll be ranked quite highly when I put my top films of the year list together. Second review is for Dallas Buyers Club which was also really good,…
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