St. Vincent review
Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before. Bill Murray plays a curmudgeonly old guy who drinks and smokes too much, and is generally considered to be a pretty unpleasant kind of guy. But a young boy and his recently divorced mother move in next door, and through a series of funny but also … Read more
Stray Dogs review
Stray Dogs is the latest, and possibly last, feature by Tsai Ming-liang, famed director of ‘slow cinema.’ This film embeds the audience with a father, son and daughter as they all struggle to survive in Taipei. These three members of Taiwan’s underclass live a difficult, almost impossible existence, with the father, played by Ming-liang regular Lee Kang-sheng, … Read more
Stations of the Cross review
Through an unbroken and locked-off opening shot that lasts over ten minutes, Stations of the Cross introduces to the ultra-conservative Father Weber (Florian Stetter), a follower of the Society of St. Paul and the man tasked with guiding a group of children through their first communion. Watching Weber’s lecture of the children, we observe his instruction that they should … Read more
Paddington review
Adapting Michel Bond’s much beloved but rather slim Paddington stories couldn’t have been easy for writer-director Paul King, but it’s clear that he took the job very seriously and poured his heart and soul into it. As a result, he’s made a film that’s both carefully thought out and very smartly executed. The movie opens with with newsreel-style footage of … Read more