The James Marsh film review archive

James Marsh

  • REVIEW: The Wolf Of Wall Street

    In their fifth screen collaboration, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio produce the funniest work of their careers in this debauched and riotously indulgent black comedy depicting the rise and fall… Read More

  • The Wolf Of Wall Street

    The Wolf Of Wall Street

    In their fifth screen collaboration, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio produce the funniest work of their careers in this debauched and riotously indulgent black comedy depicting the rise and fall… Read More

  • The White Storm

    This year’s HK Asian Film Festival opened with Benny Chan’s epic throwback to the Hong Kong heroic bloodshed thrillers of the 1980s, with Lau Ching Wan, Louis Koo and Nick… Read More

  • The Spy Who Loved Me

    Because it’s my favourite Bond film, and aafter listening back to my discussion of the film with Rudie Obias and West Anthony on The Auteur Cast I just had to… Read More

  • The Big City

    Madhabi Mukherjee is luminous in Satyajit Ray’s film about a Bengali housewife who experiences her first taste of freedom and financial independence when her husband (reluctantly) allows her to get… Read More

  • The Man In The White Suit

    Beautifully highlights the contradictions by which industry controls & impedes innovation for its own survival, and is also a delightful comedy about Alec Guinness’ penniless visionary fighting the system in… Read More

  • Hwayi: A Monster Boy

    Packed with violence, humour, machismo, revenge & more quirk than most Korean revenge thrillers, but the anarchic genre-bending spirit of the director’s almost indefinable previous film, Save The Green Planet,… Read More

  • Raising Cain

    One of the more derivative, ridiculous offerings from Brian De Palma that sees John Lithgow playing a respected child psychologist with a split personality. While his wfie gets increasingly distressed,… Read More

  • Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

    Masked psychopath Michael Myers returns to Haddonfield yet again to stalk his niece, played again by Danielle Harris. Donald Pleasence also returns as psychiatrist Dr. Loomis, but this chapter in… Read More

  • The Battery

    An excellent example of how to do a low budget zombie movie right. Focus on character, forget about gore and FX. Great stuff. Read More

  • Richard III

    Olivier is brilliant as the utter bastard who schemes and murders his way through his own family to seize the British throne for himself. The third of Larry’s big screen… Read More

  • Things To Come

    This is what happens when H.G. Wells is allowed to make a science fiction. Visually impressive, wildly prescient and stunning in its ambition. Read More

  • The Warriors

    I finally watched Walter Hill’s gangland classic for the first time as part of Twitch’s Full Disclosure feature. It hasn’t aged particularly well, and fails to resonate when discovered today… Read More

  • Special ID

    Following a string of historical martial arts epics, Donnie Yen makes his return to contemporary action films with this high-octane tale of an undercover cop torn between duty and loyalty… Read More

  • The Man Who Would Be King

    The only film to co-star British cinematic icons (and long-time friends) Michael Caine and Sean Connery, The Man Who Would Be King is a late-career highlight from American director John… Read More

  • Captain Phillips

    Tom Hanks leads a convincing charge for his third Best Actor Oscar as real-life merchant seaman Capt. Richard Phillips, whose container ship is overpowered by Somali pirates in Paul Greengrass’… Read More

  • Prisoners

    Denis Villeneuve’s English language debut is a tough, gritty and downright chilly thriller about a man (Hugh Jackman) who takes the law into his own hands when his daughter goes… Read More

  • Hannah And Her Sisters

    Excellent example of Allen’s great skill for writing great women characters. Hershey is both understated yet utterly desirable. And Caine! Top tier stuff. Read More