The Messenger follows Jack (Robert Sheehan), the titular protagonist, who delivers messages from the ghosts of the recently-deceased to their bereaved loved ones. Only he can see those ghosts. Following the murder of a prominent war correspondent Mark (Alex Wyndham), Mark’s ghost tasks Jack with giving his wife an important message. Despite a premise that is […]
Category: Film and Media
Film Review: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”, USA 2015 Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon In UK cinemas now American cinema has always been fascinated by stories of cancer in young people; Love story, USA 1970, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Story_(1970_film), 50/50 (USA, 2011) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50/50_(2011_film), and more recently “The fault in our stars, USA 2014” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fault_in_Our_Stars_(film). The first feature film from […]
Film Review: The Maggie (1954) directed by Alexander Mackendrick
As part of the British Film Institute- BFI’s Britain on Film Project (www.bfi.org.uk/britain-on-film), the Maggie, (1954), one of the most endearing comedies made by Ealing Studios, has been digitized and re-released online and on DVD. […]
Film Review: Inside Out
This year’s summer release by Pixar Animation Studios, Inside Out, follows the inner workings of the mind of Riley, an 11-year-old girl from Minnesota, as her life is suddenly turned upside down when her family moves to San Francisco. This film has already received great acclaim at Cannes Film Festival 2015 for its heartfelt relatable […]
Film Review: Mediterranea
Lambert Wilson, actor and musician, Master of Ceremonies of Cannes Film Festival 2014, said “The world is written in an incomprehensible language, but cinema translates it for us universally. Without its guiding light, each person would remain in isolated darkness”. Exactly a year later in May 2015, an Italian film “Mediterranea” directed by Jonas […]
Film Review: Alive Inside
It is because we live in a society where we tend to commit vulnerable members such as people with dementia to care institutions that we need documentaries like “Alive inside”. This very moving film, winner of the “Audience Award” at the Sundance Film Festival, 2014, follows a New York based social worker Dan Cohen as […]
Film Review: Wild Tales
What separates us from living like animals? And what calamity or force does it take to unleash our primal instincts? “Wild Tales” is a compendium of satirical short stories about the pain and pressure points of modern 21st Century life and specifically what happens to the Latin spirit under duress. What delirious lengths do […]
Film Review: Still Alice
Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) is a good-looking fifty-year-old successful professor of linguistics; her loving husband (Alec Baldwin) is a brilliant research physician, she has three beautiful children, a brownstone in the Upper West side and a house at the Hamptons. This is the perfect stage for an impending disaster; in fact after some episodes of […]
Gamal Hassan: “Stoker’s plight: Is Murderous Instinct Nature or Nurture?”
A review of the film “Stoker” USA 2013 directed by Park Chan-Wook Mental illness and its impact on individuals and families have inspired film-makers from all around the world. “Stoker” directed by the visionary film maker Park Chan-Wook (of “Old boy” fame, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldboy_(2003_film) is a family drama with a different twist. […]
In the Shadow of Guardians: A Review of ‘Radiator’ and ‘My Old Lady’
“Radiator” screened at the London Film Festival October 2014, star rating: 4* directed by Tom Browne, due to be released in 2015 “My old lady” is currently in general release in the UK, star rating: 3*, directed by Israel Horovitz, http://cohenmedia.net/films/my-old-lady The Oxford dictionary defines the word “guardian” as ” a person who is legally […]