Beasts of the Southern Wild, directed by Benh Zeitln, is a tale of the trials and tribulations of growing up as a young girl in the Bathtub, her outsider home that is frequently flooded and hit with brutal storms leaving her and her makeshift family stranded. Hushpuppy, our hero, lives with her distant, injured father, who wants to teach her how to look after herself … Continue reading Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin, 2012)
No Country for Old Men on the surface is an old western style chase film, one man following another- both paralleling each other in the way they move, think and function. Moss embarks on a journey after finding a case of money when he dangerously stumbled upon a brutal drug deal gone wrong. And soon he regrets taking this money, as he starts to be … Continue reading No Country for Old Men (The Coen Brothers, 2007)
I don’t think there has ever been a more truthful representation of a teenage girl. Even with the relationships that ‘Lady Bird’ has… everything is relatable. The movie brings to life the feeling, that we all get, of not seeing the small moments. Director Greta Gerwig films in short elliptical scenes thatjump from time to time throughout this teenage girl’s senior year of high school, … Continue reading Ladybird (Greta Girwig, 2018)
Warrior tells the story of two brothers– Brendan and Tommy – campaigning to enter an ultimate fighting competition. The two men are doing it for completely opposite reasons; Tommyjust for the sake of beating loads of people up! And Brendan so he can look after his family. Whatever their reasons, O’Connor, the director, allows us to empathise with them both… tortured by their newly sober father, … Continue reading Warrior (Gavin O’Connor, 2011)
The classic way cinema is viewed is in a closed off box (literally and metaphorically). When the most exciting purpose of film is the opposite, it’s for challenging views and disorientating the audience. And that is exactly what ‘The Scar’ did. The film is presented as an art installation at ‘HOME’, viewed in three separate, transparent hanging cylinders: the state of the state, the mouth … Continue reading The Scar (Noor Afshan Mirza and Brad Butler, 2018)
We see the majority of the action from the ‘Rear Window’ of L.B Jefferies’ flat. So naturally, we side with him and his point of view on the situation he’s in. In a normal position we would be almost put off by L.B’s stalker-ish nature, but because we’re with him (and he can’t get away from us anyway) we see it as a typical behaviour … Continue reading Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
Crooked House is the first Agatha Christie film I’ve ever seen… and I wasn’t disappointed. With suspicious character architypes, turbulent plot twists, the odd red-herring and timeless romance that came with it. The vintage nature of this film is one of classic murder mystery genre. Gilles Paquet-Brenner really highlighted the excitement and suspense through his use of cryptic close-ups and enigmatic mise-en-scene, in which he … Continue reading Crooked House (Gilles Paquet-Brenner, 2017)
The last song of 20000 Days on Earth is ‘Jubilee Street’, the main line being “I’m transforming.” And this completely embodies the transcendent nature of the film. Nick Cave created this documentary in order to preserve himself; he becomes frozen in time. One dominant theme of this film is memory, more importantly the encompassing fear of losing them. But in this way, capturing his life … Continue reading 20000 Days on Earth (Jane Pollard and Iain Forsythe, 2014)
The narrative twist in Shutter Island is one that baffled me. So many ideas went through my head about what was really going on, that it was almost as if I was being intoxicated by the hallucinogenic drugs as well. The film deals with a tragic story about a man who is so out of his mind with guilt and remorse that he makes a … Continue reading Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese, 2010)
Jubilee is by far one of the most chaotic, and intense depictions of the UK punk era. It features a group of friends who do what they want, when they want. And don’t take no for an answer. They are ruthless, aggressive and yet so caring about the world they’re living in, and the injustices they face day to day because of the patriarchy. This … Continue reading Jubilee (Derek Jarman, 1978)
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