The James Marsh film review archive

  • REVIEW: Flight

    Robert Zemeckis, the Oscar-winning director of Forrest Gump and Back To The Future, returns to live action for the first time in more than a decade, directing his first R… Read More

  • Searching For Sugar Man

    The favourite to win Best Documentary at the Oscars later this month is a fantastic piece of investigative journalism into what became of the folk singer Rodriguez. A Mexican-born Detroit… Read More

  • REVIEW: Searching For Sugar Man

    I had put off watching this much-lauded documentary for most of 2012 for one reason or another, but after finally catching it today I don’t know why I waited so… Read More

  • Once Upon a Time in the West

    After completing his “Dollars Trilogy”, Sergio Leone was done with the Western, until Paramount offered him a huge budget and the opportunity to work with his favourite actor, Henry Fonda.… Read More

  • A Foreign Affair

    Screening at the Hong Kong Film Archive as part of mini retrospective showcasing the collaborations between Billy Wilder and Marlene Dietrich, I went into this with no other information and… Read More

  • The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

    Sergio Leone’s third and final chapter in his loose “dollars trilogy” with Clint Eastwood is also the first of two back-to-back masterpieces of the genre from the king of the… Read More

  • Seven Psychopaths

    Irish writer-director Martin McDonagh follows up his hugely entertaining debut, In Bruges, by moving to Hollywood and attempting a larger, more ambitiously plotted tale of hit men, dog ‘nappers and… Read More

  • Texas Chainsaw 3D

    Opening with a swift recap of the events of the 1974 original film, this latest entry reveals that an infant member of the cannibalistic Sawyer family survived and has now… Read More

  • Lost in Thailand

    Xu Zheng writes, produces, directs and stars as Xu Lang, a scientist making a desperate dash to Thailand in order to track down his boss and secure the exclusive rights… Read More

  • Beasts of the Southern Wild

    Writer-director Benh Zeitlin delivers one of the best American Indies in recent memory, bolstered by a knockout central performance from 6-year-old Quavenzhane Wallis. Read my full review here. Read More

  • REVIEW: Beasts of the Southern Wild

    A full year after it emerged as the buzz title from Sundance 2012, Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild finally reaches Hong Kong, buoyed up by 4 Academy Award… Read More

  • Rio Bravo

    In preparation for a piece I’m writing for the HK Film Archive, I’m re-visiting a number of classic Westerns this week. After John Ford’s The Searchers, next on my list… Read More

  • Lincoln

    Steven Spielberg assembles an incredible cast of noted character performers for this dense, stately yet thoroughly rewarding history lesson. As a Brit, my knowledge of the American Civil War is… Read More

  • Story of a Prostitute

    I’ve had this Criterion DVD kicking around for a number of years and have repeatedly put off watching it. Now I finally have gotten around to seeing it, I’m kicking… Read More

  • The Searchers

    First watched this as a teenager and failed to get too much from it beyond the spectacle of Monument Valley. The new HD restoration makes the film worth re-watching for… Read More

  • The Bay

    Barry Levinson, the Oscar-winning director of Rain Man and Bugsy, re-emerges with his first film in what feels like a decade, and it’s a found-footage style horror movie about a… Read More

  • Movie 43

    The recent trend of holiday-themed ensemble movies takes a sharp left turn into gross-out comedy territory in this sketch-based mess that sees all number of familiar faces play fiercely against… Read More

  • The Hidden

    One of those movies that always caught my eye in the video store, but for one reason or another I never got around to actually watching. Michael Nouri plays the… Read More