Saturday 29th November 2025

Film

Can movie violence ever be fun?

“Because it's so much fun, Jan!” This was Quentin Tarantino’s answer when an interviewer asked him to justify on-screen violence. Few would disagree. From the thousands who flocked to...

One of the most urgent films of the year: ‘Urchin’ review

There are few films which have the power to change how you interact day-to-day...

The performance of watching: Cinema in the Letterboxd age

While watching Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another (2025) a few weeks ago,...

Film festivals should be more pretentious, actually!

Film festivals often get a bad rep. We’ve all heard the stereotype before: they...

Cleverly Captured Vulnerability in ‘Normal People’

When I first read Normal People, it was the unwavering emotional rigour of the prose that got to me. Rooney has this matter-of-fact way...

Eyes Wide Open: How Stanley Kubrick saw humanity

Deep in idyllic Hertfordshire, in the last quarter of the last century, there lived an uncompromising genius. The director Stanley Kubrick was a recluse...

A Phenomenology of Lost Cinemas

Every time I frantically peruse my notes, I find the keystone unlocking the bliss of unbridled writing flow by way of recalling. I remind...

Cinema: The venue transcending the visual

Maybe if I had known, I’d have stopped to take a picture. I’d have kept that ticket. Maybe if I'd known, I would have...

Mastering the group-watch with cheap horror flicks

The credits start to roll once the house is completely overwhelmed by fire. The monster is somewhere inside, and it’s already been defeated. This...

The Star Wars Prequels: Too Easily Dismissed?

These days, with nowhere to go and no-one to see, movie-watching is as good a way as any to pass the time: suddenly a...

STOP USING MAX RICHTER’S “ON THE NATURE OF DAYLIGHT” IN EVERYTHING

Our favorite songs are fecund pleasures, increasing in affectivity and growing with us over time, like a reliable friendship. But, if you dilute the...

“I am together”: Love and loneliness in the work of Wim Wenders

In the quasi-apocalyptic gloom of these days, we desperately seek ways to pass the time, to numb our loneliness, to move on. The German...

Why Tiger King is the antithesis, not the antidote, to the Coronavirus

There are under 3500 tigers remaining in the wild globally. There are anywhere between 5000-10,000 tigers currently in captivity in the United States. This...

Comfort Films: What We Do in the Shadows

Niche is one way to describe a dark comedy about a group of vampires muddling through day-to-day life in Wellington suburbia. However, Taika Waititi...

Review: Corpus Christi

Once in a while you want to remain in your seat after the closing credits appear - you find yourself unable to simply get...

Review: Portrait of a Lady on Fire

It’s strange to talk about love in a film review. It seems to be the object of universal pursuit, or rather, more frequently, the...

An Introduction to K-dramas

On the 9th of February 2020, history was made at the Oscars when Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite became the first ever non-English film to win...

Review: I Lost My Body

I Lost My Body (in French, J’ai perdu mon corps) tackles issues of love, loss and maturity, all through a series of flashbacks in...

Comfort Films: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Despite box-office failure, Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has managed to reach status as a cult classic both amongst fans of Wright’s...

Review: Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Despite the recent post-#MeToo surge in the popularity of female-led films and films directed by women, Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire...

Review: The True History of the Kelly Gang

Ned Kelly (born in 1854, died on the gallows in 1880) is the ultimate Australian anti-hero. As ubiquitous Down Under as Robin Hood is...

(Non)Traditional Casting

When you imagine an eccentric Dickens character or an armored knight of Arthurian legend, you probably don’t picture an ethnically Indian man. Dev Patel...

Review: Emma.

With Little Women and David Copperfield playing on screens, and The Secret Garden coming up in April, Emma. is one in a remarkable string...

“Clue” as a Chamber Piece for Our Time

I’ve only been away from Oxford for a week. I’ve only spent a week in isolation at home with my parents. But a week...

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