Moving away from the more outlandish aspects of the comic book character created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, The Batman tells a more serious-minded story with Robert Pattinson in the titular role fully committed to the underlying psychological aspects of the character. In addition, it's welcomely fast-tracked the origin story with a screenplay set in the Gotham vigilante's second year of lurking within the shadows battling crime. Director and co-writer Matt Reeves, best known for his sequels to Rupert Wyatt's Rise of…
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Parallel Mothers 2021
Reuniting with frequent collaborator Penélope Cruz, Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar tells a typically compelling tale in Parallel Mothers, his twenty-second feature. While the soap opera melodrama here is played a little too heavy-handed on occasion, his written screenplay is elevated by Milena Smit and Cruz's captivating performances. Cruz is a staple of Almodóvar's work, and loss and motherhood are two of the most prominent topics in his filmography, but this never feels like a regurgitation of any of his previous…
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Vampyros Lesbos 1971
Cult Spanish filmmaker Jess Franco crafts a captivating and surrealist tale with Vampyros Lesbos, which, by using particular plot points, loosely follows the storyline of the iconic novel Dracula by author Bram Stoker. Strange and distinctive in its own right, the erotic horror film features constant extreme close-ups of people's faces, particularly the eyes of leading actresses Soledad Miranda and Ewa Strömberg. A psychedelic score backs it up as it centres around the exploits of Countess Nadine Carody, a glamorous…
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The Awful Dr. Orloff 1962
With an opening sequence reminiscent of Robert Siodmak's distinctive 1946 thriller The Spiral Staircase, The Awful Dr Orloff has the distinction of being the first internationally successful horror and exploitation film produced in Spain. Written and directed by Jesús Franco, it's a variation on Georges Franju's 1960 French classic Eyes Without a Face that unfolds in a pre-war Paris where a rash of abductions of beautiful young women comes to the attention of police Inspector Edgar Tanner (Conrado San Martin). …
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Zack Snyder's Justice League 2021
So it's finally here, the reshot and retooled alternate version of the 2017 box office bomb Justice League. Now admittedly, Zack Snyder's films, along with those of Michael Bay, have never been able to fill me with joyous anticipation. Still, I've had protracted intentions of watching this after all the ridiculous and childish absurdities of the years of online campaigning of #ReleasetheSnyderCut. This campaign saw a loud and primarily obnoxious community insisting they were being denied access to a secret…
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1917 2019
1917 is an emotionally harrowing and memorable experience. It’s a movie in which Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049) utilises long takes to give the impression of it being one continuous shot, as opposed to an authentic one-shot movie such as Sebastian Schipper’s magnificent Victoria. The trick/gimmick very quickly becomes subordinate however as the story itself is so absorbing, but it’s nonetheless an extraordinary feat, and the crew spent months harmonising shots and sequences so that everything would be…
