fame
The Death and Life of John F. Donovan is far from perfect, but still manages to be a fascinating attempt at exploring sexual identity, isolation and the consequences of fame.
The American Meme is a fascinating close-up on the lives of memes and the confounding value they have in the digital world.
A Star is Born announces Bradley Cooper as the next great actor-director, but Lady Gaga is by far the beating heart of his directorial debut.
Jane Fonda in Five Acts celebrates change and transformation, and is as inspirational as the iconic actress at its centre.
We spoke with Dominic West who is currently starring in Colette (and known for The Wire and The Affair), about fame, women’s voices in film and more.
Tea With The Dames is a charming documentary, offering the once in a lifetime chance to spend ninety minutes in the company of four iconic actresses.
A clunkily-titled but absorbing documentary with alot of material to juggle, The Public Image Is Rotten is breathless at times, but never less than engaging.
Songwriter is a fun and lighthearted look at the process of behind pop music songwriting, with a little bit of a background on the man behind the guitar and mic.
With a distinctly nineties feel, An L.A. Minute is surreal and thought-provoking, even in its imperfect moments.
Whitney: Can I Be Me focuses more on the context and hidden traumas of Whitney’s life than the music itself, but that’s no bad thing.
The Phenom is a difficult film to pin down. While trailers and taglines suggest a sports drama in the vein of, say, A League of Their Own or For The Love of the Game, this somewhat sombre drama feels tapered down, unwilling to pander to the feelgood melodrama that can sometimes overwhelm these kind of movies. It’s the story of the improbably named Hopper Gibson (Johnny Simmons), a talented pitcher thrust into the limelight after signing for a major league club straight out of school.
You will see the term postmodern to describe the comedy of The Lonely Island, the comedy team responsible for this film and the birth of the Saturday Night Live Digital Short, as you read opinions on their newest film, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. It is a vague term that means comedy that deconstructs the art and is self-aware.
Documentary filmmaking is an interesting thing: while an actor in a fiction film can (though certainly doesn’t necessarily) excise their own personal ego and inhabit a role entirely separate from themselves, the documentary subject does not have this luxury. In fact, for the subject of a documentary to be successful it takes precisely the opposite skill; to be fully present in oneself, perpetuating the most “you” version of you possible.
Having recovered from the shock upon discovering that summer 1990 was a quarter of a century ago, I recently reacquainted myself with one or two of the cinematic treats that I first enjoyed at the tender age of 15. Darkman got a repeat viewing, as did the sorely underappreciated Quick Change with Bill Murray. I was especially pleased to find that my personal favourite alumni from the class of ’90 had aged so well: