Short Reviews
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The closing film at PiFan this year was this modest, yet mostly effective thriller starring Ha Jung-woo as a shamed TV anchor, now radio DJ, who is forced back on… Read More
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A somewhat pedestrian documentary about a group of misguided eco-warriors becomes a captivating exercise in car crash voyeurism as the members of the bizarre Fuck For Forest campaign head from… Read More
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After losing his job, a lowly office lad attempts to drown his sorrows, only to be thrown out of a girly bar. He manages to anger a gang of yakuza… Read More
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Excellent low budget Indonesian thriller about a young, pornography-addicted taxi driver who becomes obsessed with the prostitute next door. With echoes of Drive and Taxi Driver, this is nevertheless an… Read More
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Quite possibly the weirdest film I’ve seen all year, which one would think would be reason enough to warrant some kind of recommendation. However, after a pretty gonzo horror-fuelled opening… Read More
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In an effort to cash in on the popularity of gross-out sex comedy Vulgaria, this wayward, sloppy and mostly uninspiring trio of saucy tales emerges, and for the most part… Read More
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Eric Matti’s gritty yet composed Filipino thriller is one of the year’s best crime dramas, exploring the allegedly true stories of incarcerated prisoners plucked from their cells to commit high… Read More
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Andrew Bujalski’s mostly successful faux documentary spotlights an assembly of awkward boffins duking it out with their unfeasably large computers in the early 80s. It makes some wonderful observations about… Read More
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Excellent Spanish thriller that takes two seemingly separate story strands and sends them hurtling towards each other with predictably shocking, tragic consequences. In the Spanish countryside on the eve of… Read More
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Bong Joon-ho’s English language debut is an incredible work of dystopian sci-fi that delivers a career-best performance from Chris Evans in one of the most emotionally complex and challenging action… Read More
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Excellent Danish crime drama has distinct echoes of early Nicolas Winding Refn in its story of a young man drawn into the Copenhagen underworld while looking to provide for his… Read More
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Indian director Anurag Kashyap’s follow up to the epic crime saga, Gangs of Wasseypur, is a contemporary kidnapping thriller that more than lives up to its title. When a wannabe… Read More
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Not to brag, but Josh Johnson’s nostalgic documentary about the death of the VHS era and many films along with it, is chock full of people I know. This not-so-strange… Read More
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One of the best examples of cinematic schadenfraude in recent memory, first-time director E.L. Katz takes two down on their luck losers and pits them against each other – for… Read More
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After months reading about Richard Raaphorst’s Nazi era found footage zombie movie, I was rather underwhlemed by the whole experience. The central conceit, in which a young Russian soldier is… Read More
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Chilean surrealist Alejandro Jodorowsky returns to filmmaking for the first time in more than 20 years, and the results are every bit as bizarre and beautiful as we could have… Read More
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Of interest almost solely because of a rare acting performance from Alejandro Jodorowsky, this Italian psychodrama proves a baffling, underwhelming dud. As our heroine battles depression and an incredibly frustrating… Read More
The James Marsh film review archive 