Tag: Drama
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Still Life (2006)
I was watching Still Life (2006) in several sittings due to timing and being away on holiday. Not an ideal way to experience the film, and one I would have loved to have seen in a cinema, but its approach and tone suited the intermittent immersion. Dipping in and out of the movie like I… Read.
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Winter Kills (1979)
Winter Kills (1979) is the absurdist extension of the conspiracy thriller in vogue during the 1970s. Imagine The Parallax View, a riff on imagined counter narratives to the official record of the JFK assassination, but exaggerated with a strange comedy, not quite spoof or parody. Each scene in Winter Kills is eventually marked by a… Read.
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The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter (1984)
While I have not seen every Shaw Brothers movie, The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter (1984) might be my favourite movie of the studio, so far. Directed by the legendary choreographer Lau Kar-leung who made the 36th Chamber Of Shaolin, and plenty of other Shaw Brothers classics currently available to stream on Mubi. Set in feudal… Read.
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The Decline Of Western Civilisation III (1998)
Scene report: crust-punks in the 1990s. I dragged my feet watching the third entry into Penelope Spheeris’ Decline of Western Civilisation trilogy. The second has the blockbuster marquee appeal with its Metal Years bone-head hilarity, and the first is a witness to the LA punk scene as it happens. In the back half of the… Read.
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Flesh + Blood (1985)
Flesh + Blood (1985) as a title has always felt like the best summary of Paul Verhoeven as a director. This is what marks his greatness, a keen study of “flesh and blood,” all the ways it can be shown and conceptualised. How moments can stick in your mind through the filmmaker’s capacity to make… Read.
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