Cannes: Dope review
Dope’s lead character is Malcolm (Shameik Moore), a self-identified geek. He likes Game of Thrones, is in a punk band, and is obsessed with the nineties, and in particular nineties hip hop. 2 Live Crew, Digital Underground, Public Enemy and many, many more get a mention in Dope‘s dialogue, or an inclusion on the film’s extraordinary soundtrack. … Read more
Cannes: The Treasure review
From the very beginning of The Treasure, writer-director Corneliu Porumboiu is laying a trail of breadcrumbs for the audience, leading them directly to his final conclusion. The film opens, for instance, with office worker Costi (Toma Cuzin) reading Robin Hood to his son, a not-so subtle hint regarding Porumboiu’s viewpoint on wealth in the current economic climate. … Read more
Cannes: Yakuza Apocalypse review
Kageyama (Hayato Ichihara) made it his mission to become a yakuza following an encounter in a bath house with a charismatic yakuza boss named Kamiura, played by the wonderful Riri Furanki. But the way of the yakuza, and particularly so in the gleefully imagined reality of director Takashi Miike and screenwriter Yoshitaka Yamaguchi, is not an easy … Read more
Cannes: Macbeth review
It’s the curse of any film based on well known material that the audience might spend a significant amount of their viewing time considering the ways in which the source has been adapted. Anyone familiar with the ‘Scottish Play’ will go through director Justin Kurzel and screenwriters Jacob Koskoff, Michael Lesslie and Todd Louiso’s version of Macbeth noticing the changes … Read more