PODCAST: LFF 2021 – The Tragedy of Macbeth [Movie Robcast]

This is our final London Film Festival wrap-up episode, and thank you to all those listeners who stuck with us on a review of this year’s LFF.

To end, we look at Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand.…

REVIEW: The Tragedy of Macbeth (London Film Festival 2021)

In his first single-handed filmmaking venture, Joel Coen (best known as one half of the Coen Bros.) takes on Shakespeare in The Tragedy of Macbeth.

Shot entirely on set, with sharp, black-&-white cinematography courtesy of Bruce Delbonnel, the film’s striking, otherworldly visuals, inky shadows and slanting light, owe a debt to German Expressionism.…

PODCAST: London Film Festival 2021 Preview [Movie RobCast]

Episode 126 of The Movie Robcast previews this year’s BFI London Film Festival.

Back in cinemas after a largely digital outing in 2020 for obvious reasons, the festival this year offers its typically vast range of movies (and TV series) from around the globe.…

PODCAST: Oscars 2021 Round-Up [Movie RobCast]

Episode 114 rounds up the 2021 Oscars.

Yep, the time rolls around so quickly, even if this one was delayed by two months. The Robs run through the scaled-down affair, the changes made from the normal Oscar ceremonies, what worked, what really didn’t work and all in-between.…

FEATURE: My 2020 in Cinema

PSA: Unlike with this year’s roundup on the Movie Robcast, I’ve decided not to include any films that were eligible for the previous Oscars; even if they were only released in the UK in 2020.

That means no Parasite for Best Picture, or Céline Sciamma for Best Director (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), no Scarlett Johansson for Best Supporting Actress (Jojo Rabbit), or Roger Deakins for Best Cinematography (1917).

REVIEW: Nomadland [LFF 2020]

In a year that for most people has been largely defined by not leaving the house, Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland is a paean to wide, open spaces.

Based on Jessica Bruder’s non-fiction novel, we follow Fern (Frances McDormand). Uprooted by the 2008 recession – the film opens in 2011 – and by the death of her husband, Fern has hit the road in her camper van; seeking out seasonal employment along along the West Coast.…

PODCAST: Oscars 2018 [Electric Shadows]

The Electric Shadows Podcast reaches its 40th episode.

What better way to mark this landmark episode than by discussing the biggest night in the movie calendar: the Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars. Best known as the awards where they announced the wrong movie last year for the biggest win of the night.…

Our BAFTA 2018 predictions

By Max Eshraghi

The BAFTA film awards have always been the Oscar’s slightly more unassuming younger sibling.

While it mightn’t be quite as renowned or lavish, we Brits can conclusively make claim to having one thing over on our transatlantic cousins: BAFTA, unlike the so-called Academy Awards, frequently gets it “right”.…

PODCAST: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, & Darkest Hour [Electric Shadows]

In Episode 37 of The Electric Shadows Podcast, Robs Daniel & Wallis look at one of the best films of the year and a contender for one of the worst.

Impressing them is Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.…

REVIEW: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

“How’s things in the coloured-people-torturing business?”

It’s been five years since Martin McDonagh’s second film, the deeply violent, profoundly meta—, occasionally strangely touching Seven Psychopaths, swept through cinemas. Since then his older brother, John Michael McDonagh, has overtaken him in the cinematic stakes with his second and third film.…