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  The Northman 2022

  ★★★★½ Watched by eightandahalf 22 Apr 2022

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  The plot for Robert Eggers' latest film is rather simple. Inspired by the same legend that Shakespeare used for Hamlet, The Northman stars Alexander Skasgård as Amleth, a young man seeking revenge for the death of his father (Ethan Hawke) at the hands of his Uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang).

  But if The Northman was merely a straightforward revenge story it would be done and dusted within the first hour. What The Northman ends up being principally about is fate vs.…

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  Shadow of a Doubt 1943

  ★★★★½ Rewatched by eightandahalf 13 Nov 2021 4

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  When we first meet fresh-faced teenage Charlie (an excellent Teresa Wright), we find her lying on her bed, resenting the apparent boredom of life in an average American home in her small California town. Her father (Travers) is a mid-level banker whose form of relaxation is to discuss murders with his mousy neighbour (Cronyn). Her mother (Collinge) is a typical 1940s cinematic middle-class housewife: a pleasant homemaker who frets over public perception.

  Despite a war raging overseas, you'd hardly know…

Recent reviews

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  Hot Fuzz 2007

  ★★★★ Watched by eightandahalf 20 May 2022

  Hot Fuzz has aged quite well fifteen years on from its initial release. Sitting somewhere between a parody of British village crime shows and action films, Edgar Wright's film dumps Pegg's overly efficient big city cop in the West Country where he begins to believe that more than meets the eye.

  Hot Fuzz has its faults. Like many of the films it mines for content, it has too many false endings and its narrative twist halfway through takes far too…

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  School on Fire 1988

  ★★★½ Watched by eightandahalf 24 May 2022

  Asian Cinema Challenge 2022: boxd.it/ezTek

  17. Category III

  Unlike his superior City on Fire, Ringo Lam's 1988 film School on Fire is a pulpy exploitation flick that revels in its anger, violence and grim depiction of late 80s Hong Kong. More than three decades later, the ever present spectre of violence shown and delivered throughout School on Fire still retains its nihilistic sense of shock and awe. Despite its periodic convoluted nature, this chaotic film is quite entertaining.

Popular reviews

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  Scarface 1932

  ★★★★½ Watched by eightandahalf 12 Aug 2021

  Out of the 1930s cycle of gangster films that has to rank in the top three in level of influence and importance. Paul Muni wasn't an iconic archetype for the genre like Edward G. Robinson or James Cagney were, but he imbues Tony Camonte with an aura that is unlike Little Caesar's Rico or The Public Enemy's Tom Powers.

  Despite what the censors thought Muni's Chicagoan gangster isn't someone to aspire to be. He's imbecilic, charmless, perverse and gullible. He's…

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  The Servant 1963

  ★★★★½ Watched by eightandahalf 16 Aug 2021

  Criterion Challenge 2021: boxd.it/axfU6

  47. Based on a book

  Tony: Look, Barrett, don't forget your place. You're nothing but a servant in this house.
  Barrett: Servant? I'm nobody's servant. Who furnished the whole place for you? Who painted it for you. Who does the cooking? Who washes your pants. Who cleans the bathhouse after you? I do! I run the whole bloody place! And what do I get out of it? Nothing!

  Joseph Losey's adaptation of Robin Maugham's novella The…