Before I dive into Antonioni’s ‘Le Amiche’ (1955) it would be handy for me to clearly define some of the highly technical language associated with the famous Italian director’s style for anybody unfamiliar with his work. This will help to provide a deeper and more nuanced understanding of this most…

‘Moulin Rouge!’ (2001) shouldn’t work — hyperactive camera moves, frenetic editing, a jukebox soundtrack, garish production design, that unnecessary exclamation mark in the title! — but, somehow, it not only works but does so with such power it’s legitimately overwhelming and almost impossible to describe. You don’t watch ‘Moulin Rouge!’…

‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ (2022) is the tale of one person’s admirable bravery in the face of unbearable suffering and excruciating torment. That’s not me describing any of the characters in this movie but actually myself and the anguish I had to endure sitting through this god-awful piece of crap. …

Trying to sell you Roberto Rossellini’s ‘Fear’ (1954) is a bit tricky because my honest description of it would be “Imagine Hitchcock… but boring” (I suspect Rossellini would say that to entertain us would be “morally wrong”). Ingrid Bergman is having an affair although she is having trouble keeping it…

Mizoguichi’s ‘Sansho the Bailiff’ (1954) is filled with some of the most delicate sounds and imagery to grace the screen: sunlight on water, a half-remembered childhood song whispering through reeds, ripples extending over a perfect surface. …

I don’t normally talk to myself but all throughout the Russo brother’s ‘The Gray Man’ (2022) I kept pulling my mint tea away from my mouth to mutter out loud “This is terrible!” Yet what’s so awful about it? It’s decently made and no worse than most other current movies…

On the face of it, and for the first half hour or so, ‘Dark Victory’ (1939) threatens to come across as an outright emotionally manipulative, schmaltzy, overripe hanky-fest as we observe responsibility-free, party loving, chain-smoking, stinking rich socialite Judith Traherne (Bette Davis) living it up without a care in the…

Two of my favourite series in Italian cinema are the five original ‘Don Camillo’ and five original ‘Sartana’ films, so I was super excited about the prospect of watching ‘Il Compagno Don Camillo’ (1965), the fifth in the original run of the Don Camillo flicks, as the awesome Gianni Garko…

I’ve never been an Elvis fan so the thought of sitting through a 2hr 40min biopic of the dude didn’t exactly make me want to leap for joy. Maybe if it was about Andrew Gold, Christopher Cross or Stephen Bishop I’d have been more excited but it wasn’t and it…