epic
It has a lot of charm and it’s refreshing to see something playing by its own rules and not following a rigid formula.
By the final image of The Promised Land, we’ve been taken on an epic adventure, and in our heart of hearts, we are sated by the sweep of it all.
Killers of the Flower Moon is both a faithful adaptation and a masterful epic from Martin Scorsese. It is authentic, respectful, and informative, exuding the talents of those both in front of and behind the screen.
Japanese master filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi’s final movie Labyrinth of Cinema is a love-song to movies and a reckoning with Japanese history.
Without the love and affection of its predecessor, nor does it have a sense of discipline or focus, Iron Sky: The Coming Race falls flat.
Black ’47 isn’t a perfect film – the shaky characterisation prevents the emotional undercurrents from truly picking up speed. Regardless, it’s a fantastically captivating historical epic.
With a re-release on 70mm, we look back at the sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, which continues to astound after 50 years.
With its shallowness of character and its failed continuity of plot, Queen of the Desert is a film made as if to remind us of why we call films ‘pictures’, since the only good thing about the film is its mise-en-scenes.
Despite initial scepticism, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a vividly presented and brilliantly executed standalone Star Wars film.
Martin Scorsese’s Silence begins with a dark, blank screen, with only the gentle humming of cicadas heard on all sides. It then immediately opens up to an overcast shot overlooking the banks of a river, where numerous people are being strung up and tortured. Such a peaceful moment undercut by extreme violence is very much an indication of what’s to come.
Baz Luhrmann is a divisive director. His unique blend of pop culture references coupled with highly choreographed, hyperbolic sequences can, for some, prove distracting. Certainly, these criticisms are understandable, if not valid.
The new Criterion Collection release of A Touch of Zen includes director King Hu’s own notes on the film. In these notes, Hu discusses a conversation he had with a Zen Buddhist who told him that Zen must be understood not through verbal explanation, but through an enlightening experience. Despite his renown as a director of wuxia films, Hu was neither a Buddhist nor a martial artist; but, he believed that capturing an experience of Zen would make for a strong film.