James Marsh
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It’s not just the superhero angle that makes Brad Bird’s Oscar-winning Pixar hit of 2004 so eminently re-watchable, it’s just a damn well written and animated film. From the character… Read More
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Joshua Oppenheimer’s chilling, surreal and at times very funny documentary tracks down some of Indonesia’s most notorious death squad leaders, who are only too happy to recount and even act… Read More
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Another of the grand restored classics to play at this year’s HKIFF was the fully restored 216-minute version of Michael Cimino’s calamitous Western. This was not the first time I… Read More
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Director Pablo Berger re-locates the Brothers Grimm classic Snow White in the world of Spanish bullfighters, while also harking back to Silent Cinema. Read More
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The great thing about attending a large international film festival like HKIFF is the element of discovery. There is always plenty of variety on offer, much of which even someone… Read More
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I’m a sucker for restored classics at a film festival. What better way to catch up on an unearthed masterpiece from yesteryear than in a boffed up print on the… Read More
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A true masterpiece of American Cinema, accompanied by one of the greatest screen performances of all time, Marlon Brando would never be better than he is here, as boxer turned… Read More
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The first G.I. Joe film proved a shamelessly enjoyable piece of throwaway action nonsense, in large part thanks to the playful team dynamic and the fact nobody was expecting anything… Read More
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I first became aware of Chilean director Pablo Larrain and his regular leading man Alfredo Castro from their startling 2008 collaboration, Tony Manero. I was less enamoured, but no less… Read More
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How does one even begin to describe Anurag Kashyap’s incredible crime epic that spans three generations of a gangster family in the Eastern state of Bihar. The film essentially charts… Read More
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Lenny Abrahamson’s low budget but nicely pitched Irish drama does a great job of creating believable, likable characters who then fall foul of a second’s intervention from fate, luck or… Read More
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Taiwanese director Arvin Chen follows up his hugely entertaining debut, Au Revoir Taipei, with a perhaps even better second effort. Richie Jen is excellent as an unassuming family man who… Read More
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Much derided at the time of its original release, Roberto Rossellini’s 1950 drama has been restored by Martin Scorsese’s film preservation initiative and is ripe for reassessment. I had never… Read More
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No sooner had I got off the plane from Japan, it was time to dive right back into HKIFF. And what better way to do it than with this fantastic… Read More
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My last film at Okinawa was actually this Swedish comedy drama that picked up the AMD Next Wave award at Last year’s Fantastic Fest. Somehow I had failed to watch… Read More
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Going into this Okinawa World Premiere completely blind I could not have been more surprised by the film I saw. I had somehow failed to notice that Kaneto Shusuke’s film… Read More
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An unusual inclusion in the Local Origination Project section was this Hong Kong-set short from Horie Kei. Filmed in a combination of Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese, it nevertheless proved an… Read More
The James Marsh film review archive 