Tag: BFI

REVIEW: Shirley [LFF 2020]


After 2018’s disassociative coming-of-age story Madeline’s Madeline, Josephine Decker returns with another twist on a conventional narrative – the biopic as psychological thriller.

We first see our subject in soft focus, extreme close-up: bare skin, tangled hair, the hint of a face.…

REVIEW: Mangrove [LFF 2020]

In what has become something of an LFF tradition, Steve McQueen’s latest gets the festival off to a strong, socially-aware start.

It’s 1968 and things are changing in west London. Kids play beneath a towering overpass under construction and in Notting Hill a new restaurant, the Mangrove, provides a hub for the West Indian community.…

PODCAST: London Film Festival 2020 Preview [Movie RobCast]

In episode 101, Robs Wallis & Daniel take a look at the films getting them fired up for the 64th London Film Festival.

Predictably. this year the festival is split between showing films on the BFI Player and certain films screening in cinemas across the country.…

REVIEW: A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood [LFF 2019]

With Operation Yewtree looming large over once-idyllic childhood viewing, in the minds of the British public the last few years have altered what it means to be a beloved children’s entertainer.

As such, it’s understandable that UK audiences might not be entirely comfortable with the notion of Mr.…

REVIEW: The Lighthouse [LFF 2019]

As in his 2015 directorial debut The Witch, Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse grapples with the theme of spiritual annihilation, though in a way that’s altogether wetter, wilder, and weirder.

Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe star as two wickies, or lighthouse keepers, cut off on a crag of brine-blasted, inhospitable rock far from the mainland.If…

PODCAST: Top 10 of the 2019 London Film Festival [Electric Shadows]

Episode 71 of The Electric Shadows Podcast is an epic review of our top 10 of the 2019 London Film Festival.

Over the course of two hours, Robs Daniel & Wallis run through their respective Top 10s of the festival. There is some crossover, but some shocks are in store as films make one Rob’s list but not the other.…

REVIEW: Colour Out Of Space [LFF 2019]

Colour Out Of Space, Richard Stanley’s first film since being fired from 1996’s The Island Of Doctor Moreau, loses itself in what is, essentially, the colour of the inside of your eyelids.

The pink glow in question comes from a mysterious meteorite, which crashes down on the front lawn of the Gardner family, a bunch of city-dwellers recently escaped to rural Massachusetts.…

REVIEW: Bait

Mark Jenkin’s Bait feels like a treasure carved out of the rocky Cornish coastline.

Mark Ward (Clive Rowe) is a growling, taciturn fisherman who refuses to change with the times. His older brother (Giles King) has started using their late father’s boat to do day trips, which Mark disdains; restricting him to using nets on the beach.…

PODCAST: FrightFest 2019 Round-Up and London Film Festival 2019 Preview [Electric Shadows]

Episode 68 of The Electric Shadows Podcast sees Robs Daniel & Wallis look back at the Arrow Video FrightFest’s twentieth anniversary festival and run-down their top 10 films. Gems such as Rabid, The Dark Red, Ready or Not and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark all get warm words.…