The Childhood Of A Leader (2015)

I’d never heard of The Childhood Of A Leader (2015) until one year when I asked people what their favourite scores/songs of the year were and someone recommended Scott Walker’s score from it. The thundering overture sets the strident tone for this drama which, per the title, looks at Prescott (Tom Sweet), a young boy […]

The Fourth Man (1983)

I realised I’d never seen any pre-Hollywood Paul Verhoeven Dutch movies so I sat down with The Fourth Man (1983), which is a pretty nutty erotic thriller in the post-Hitchcock mould. Better known to me as the go-to actor for European dodgy guys in American movies like No Mercy and The Fugitive, Jeroen Krabbé plays […]

Raw (2016)

After hearing my friend Janice Loreck recommend it to me, I finally sat down and watched Raw (2016), the French-Belgian cannibal horror drama following vegetarian Justine (Garance Marillier, excellent) and her first year at veterinarian school. Yes, not for the faint of heart – there were some sequences that made me feel very squeamish. Writer-director […]

Jackie (2016)

I completely missed Jackie (2016) when it was out during the busy summer movie/award movie period but finally caught up with it and yeah, it was excellent. Natalie Portman’s performance, Stephane Fontaine’s cinematography, Mica Levi’s score, Pablo Larrain’s direction, just everything working at a quality level to present a layered, immersive portrait. Can’t believe it […]

A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin (1971)

Exploring further the world of giallo – 1970s-era Italian thrillers with plenty of eroticism, style and violence – I watched Lucio Fulci’s A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin (1971; Una lucertola con la pelle di donna), a title that is more of a metaphor than a creature feature thing. Bored glamorous Carol (Florinda Bolkan) is […]