JoJo Rabbit works nearly all of the time, which for a comedy about the friendship between a small boy in the Hitler Youth and a Jewish girl, and with a buffoonish Hitler as an imaginary father figure, is pretty good going. Writer-director Taika Waititi runs a tight ship when it comes to tonal changes, the switches… JoJo Rabbit (London Film Festival 2019) Read More
The Aftermath – 1 minute video review Includes Video 2.5 stars
READ MY FULL REVIEW OF THE AFTERMATH
The Aftermath 2.5 stars
How much can be rebuilt after it has been smashed to pieces? That’s the big question in The Aftermath – a postwar love story that attempts to to examine the realities of reconciliation, whether between people or countries. The film is about rebuilding broken relationships as much as broken cities, with the ambiguities of war… The Aftermath Read More
Das Boot (Director’s Cut) 5 stars
*** Check out my submarine movies section *** “They are drinking at the bar, celebrating our sinking! Not yet my friends, not yet!” shouts U-96’s captain with delight, as they practically bounce up onto the surface of the narrow Straits of Gibraltar, which they’ve been marooned at the bottom of for 15 hours. He’s not a lover… Das Boot (Director’s Cut) Read More
The Hatred 1.5 stars
It’s 1968, and German farmer Samuel (a suitably sinister Andrew Divoff) is living with his wife and daughter on a fruit farm in the US. He’s certainly creepy, and his clashes with his teenage daughter Alice (Darby Walker) are worse than your average father-daughter arguments even given the period it’s set. One day a package… The Hatred Read More
They Shall Not Grow Old (London Film Festival) 5 stars
This year marks 100 years since the end of – ahem – the War To End All Wars. It’s estimated 10 million military personnel died during World War 1, which ran from 1914-1918. My grandad Bill was injured by shrapnel during the Battle of the Somme on the Western Front, and eventually they had to… They Shall Not Grow Old (London Film Festival) Read More
Suspiria (1977) 3.5 stars
*** Read my review of the 2018 version of Suspiria *** Dario Argento’s 1977 classic is alternately a feast for the senses and an assault on them. Lurid, stylised, and inescapable, if it feels like that for us watching, imagine what it’s like for poor Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper), new student at the famous German… Suspiria (1977) Read More