By Nia Edwards-Behi A confession from the outset: I’ve never seen a Mad Max movie. It’s one of those franchises I just haven’t managed to catch up on. My excitement for Fury Road, however, escalated with each and every poster and trailer released. It reached that point where I needed to talk down the film […]
By Nia Edwards-Behi I know, I know, I’m lazy (editor’s note – no she bloody well isn’t, she’s written 11 full length reviews and another round-up in the past 10 days). But watching 21 films in five days inevitably means that my brain forgets a lot of the detail to some films, even when I […]
By Nia Edwards-Behi It’s the 1950s. Montse (Macarena Gomez) lives with her younger sister, Hermana (Nadia de Santiago), in a small apartment. Both their parents are dead, but their father (Luis Tosar) remains a spectral figure in the apartment for the burdened and fragile older woman. Hermana has just turned 18, and Montse struggles to […]
By Nia Edwards-Behi Hideo Nakata’s most recent films have not had the glowing reception his reputation following Ringu and Dark Water might have set him up for. I quite like 2013’s The Complex, myself, which, although a bit cliched was certainly enjoyable and featured some effective chills. Monsterz seems to have failed to impress critics […]
By Nia Edwards-Behi I have been excited about The Dead Lands since I first heard about it last year – a period martial arts film conducted entirely in a minority language? That ticks a lot of my boxes, that does. Hongi (James Rolleston) is something of the runt of the litter to his tribe. His […]
By Nia Edwards-Behi I’d seen the UK DVD release of Greatful Dead advertised quite a bit on the Third Window Films Facebook page, before seeing it in the line-up at BIFFF. It was a title I’d almost immediately added to my DVD wishlist, so the opportunity to see it on a big screen was extremely […]
By Nia Edwards-Behi Hollow is a film I’ve been trying to see since last year, my desire to see it cemented by the fact that it features the rapper Suboi in a small role (niche, right?). Anyway, I was, naturally, particularly pleased to see it in the BIFFF line-up and I’m even more pleased to […]
By Nia Edwards-Behi I’ve been anticipating German Angst for a while now, ever since seeing the project announced on Michal Kosakowski’s Facebook page. Kosakowski directed the fascinating documentary Zero Killed, and here has worked alongside Andreas Marschall (director of the giallo homage Masks) and Jorg Buttgereit (director of the recently re-released Nekromantik) on this very […]
By Nia Edwards-Behi Later this year Takashi Miike returns with Yakuza Apocalypse, pitting the titular gangsters against vampires. I don’t wish to suggest that Miike’s been somewhat pipped to the post, but Hiroshi Shinagawa’s Deadman Inferno also pits the fearsome Yakuza against the undead – only in this film it’s zombies causing mayhem. As we’ve […]
By Nia Edwards-Behi Look, okay. I’ve got a thing for South Korea at the moment. I’ve gone full fangirl over K-pop, and South Korean cuisine seems to have awoken my inner chef (she’s not a very good one). We all know that South Korea makes some of the best cinematic thrillers, so plonk me in […]
By Nia Edwards-Behi Portmanteau films, eh? They’ve made quite the comeback in recent years and there seem to be many more due this year. Mexico Barbaro is a particularly exciting entry into this come back, showcasing as it does 8 directors from Mexico, one of many Latin American countries currently making waves in the genre. […]