Grant McLanaghan

Tearing through movies like there's no tomorrow.

www.last.fm/user/BulletHeid

Favorite films

  • Her Love Boils Bathwater
  • On Her Majesty's Secret Service
  • Sweet Bean
  • Electric Dragon 80.000 V

Recent activity

All
  • Stations of the Cross

    ★★★★

  • Dust of Angels

    ★★★★

  • Crucible of Horror

    ★★★½

  • Food Luck!

Recent reviews

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  • Stations of the Cross

    Stations of the Cross

    ★★★★

    Technically excellent (yet resolutely unshowy), featuring super-long takes bolstered by fine performances. And it’s so deadly serious that it could almost be viewed as a comedy. The mother is a fascinating character, but since she’s entirely didactic and keeps herself emotionally distant, it’s nigh on impossible to feel any sympathy for her.

  • Dust of Angels

    Dust of Angels

    ★★★★

    No country for young men

    A tale which incrementally doubles down on the lack of options facing male juveniles in certain environments. In this case, with hoodlums as role models and a police force riddled with corruption, who is there to lead them out of a dead-end life of guns and gang warfare?

    Even though the film is beautifully shot, there’s nothing glamourous about any of it, and the pervading sense of threat and low-level ennui is attenuated only fleetingly by a moment of genuine, authentic humour. (And throughout, I couldn’t help but think of Made in Hong Kong, though this came first.)

Popular reviews

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  • Joint Security Area

    Joint Security Area

    ★★★★½

    Even the conspicuous dubbing of Lee Young-ae’s English dialogue (and the stilted performances of two European actors) can’t dampen the power of this deeply humanistic story about a geographical, political, ideological and cultural nexus point, where North and South Korea meet. And at the heart of this particular zone are people, not monoliths, a point which Park Chan-wook, elegantly sums up with a single photograph – a picture that is genuinely worth a thousand words.

  • The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice

    The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice

    ★★★★½

    Sympathy for Mr Bonehead

    In which Taeko (Michiyo Kogure) both scandalises and amuses a couple of her female friends and niece regarding her husband, whom she refers to as “Mr Bonehead” and compares to a dim-witted carp. And it has to be said, it’s pretty funny stuff. But then we get to spend some time with ‘Mr Bonehead’ – or Mokichi (Shin Saburi), to give him his actual name – and we realise that he’s a decent chap. It’s just…