Good, great or just alright? Lisa Choldenko’s recent, acclaimed film is a little bit of each for Declan Tan The Kids Are All Right is a film that, like its two main characters, gets stuck in its meandering second half. And although it seems a sincere and even genuine slice of family life at first, […]
127 Hours (Danny Boyle)
… in which Danny Boyle gussies up the true story of Aron Ralston, adrenalin fiend and extreme sports enthusiast, who got himself stuck under a rock for five and a bit days. Review by Declan Tan The vacant, feature-length hip-hop montage that is 127 Hours begins with an ill-advisedly selected Free Blood track (‘Never Hear […]
Spork (J.B. Ghuman Jr)
Colourful comfort blanket for social misfits or tacky cult-by-numbers debut? Declan Tan reviews J.B. Ghuman’s debut Getting her nickname from that ingenious eating utensil that blends the undeniable benefits of both a fork and a spoon (for she, you see, is an intersex teenager), the titular character of this high school comedy/musical turns out herself […]
Self Made (Gillian Wearing)
Declan Tan finds the artist Gillian Wearing lives up to her surname in the full-length film project Self Made Gillian Wearing has a history of getting people on camera and making them open up. In the 1990s, she placed an advert in Time Out asking people to “confess all on video”. Now, she is doing […]
Home For Christmas (Bent Hamer)
Yuletide films are a risky proposition (and reviewing them in summer equally so). Can a Norwegian director of note make his mark? Declan Tan finds out Only a shade darker than your standard Disney snow-and-Santa fare comes Bent Hamer’s latest, a surprisingly uninspired bit of yuletide flakiness from the writer/director who seemed to have adaptations […]
Picco (Philip Koch)
Philip Koch’s harrowing prison drama reviewed by Declan Tan When you watch Picco you get the feeling that former-critic and one-time film student Philip Koch knows his stuff. In his feature debut follow-up to the award-winning short Lumen, Koch skilfully blends the theory and artful subtlety that seems to have informed his Nouvelle Vagary from […]
Essential Killing (Jerzy Skolimowski)
Vincent Gallo won acclaim for his silent portrayal and director Skolimowski has the pedigree. Declan Tan assesses whether Essential Killing lives up to its reputation Jerzy Skolimowski (writer of Knife in the Water, writer-director of Deep End, actor in Before Night Falls) is clearly not a bad sort. His credits speak for themselves. And on […]
Howl (Friedman and Epstein)
The James Franco-Allen Ginsberg biopic is now available as a DVD. Save your money, reckons Declan Tan As well as telling the story of the 1957 obscenity trial concerning City Lights Books’ publication of the seminal poem, Howl, Friedman and Epstein’s film attempts to navigate the murky juices of Allen Ginsberg’s life and work during […]
Abel (Diego Luna)
Mexican actor Diego Luna’s directorial debut reviewed by Declan Tan Here’s one: a heartfelt directorial debut from Mexican actor Diego Luna, about a young boy who has this mental condition where he thinks he’s his dad, so he comes home from the hospital and orders his family about, checks their homework, meets their boyfriends for […]
A Screaming Man (Un Homme Qui Crie)
Declan Tan reviews Mahamet-Saleh Haroun’s third film Mahamet-Saleh Haroun’s third cinematic feature, sparse and emotionally kinetic, tells the modern-day allegorical tale of a Chadian man, Adam (Youssouf Djaoro); once unchangeable by the world, and content in his life, while seemingly devoted to his family (but more so his past), who begins to disintegrate as a […]
San Pedro on St. George’s Day: Letter From La Paz II
Declan Tan’s second ‘Letter from La Paz’ is a fictional account of a visit to Bolivia’s San Pedro prison “A pint a-Carling yeah and whatever you’re havin’,” a white-spit mouth, mine, chums out familiar to the bar girl. I’m pointing at the tap and reaching my hand out as it pours, my fingers snatching at […]
Route 36: Letter From La Paz
In the first of two ‘Letters from La Paz’, Declan Tan straightens a few myths about Bolivia’s Route 36, “the world’s first cocaine lounge” “Take it out of the bag,” one of them whispers, as a small mountain of Bolivian marching powder unfolds from the wrap. Forming peaks where it piles on the surface, the […]
Isn’t It Good? Norwegian Wood
Although not the first screen adaptation of his work, Norwegian Wood opens a potential floodgate of cinematic versions. Does Murakami survive or get lost in translation? Declan Tan finds out Anh Hung Tran’s adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s 1987 novel Norwegian Wood is one of those films that leaves you seeking out the source material. Perhaps […]
The Way We War: In Our Name
In Our Name is a contemporary British war drama starring a host of TV actors. Declan Tan assesses whether this works for or against the film Brian Welsh’s second feature, starring those recognisable but unnamable faces from a spectrum of Britain’s most loved/hated evening programmes, manages all the feel and finish of some of those […]
Chib Club: Peter Mullan: Neds
Declan Tan takes a second look at Peter Mullan’s tale of Glasgow gangs on the eve of its DVD release Neds (short for Non-Educated Delinquents) charts the viscous trickle of one gifted boy’s eventual adhesion to the 1970s Glaswegian gang culture, a fate that Peter Mullan (writer-director) now into his third feature, so narrowly avoided […]
Peter Watkins, The Universal Clock and the Monoform
Writer and director Peter Watkins has dedicated his career to exploring the limits of docudrama filmmaking. After the BBC suppressed transmission of The War Game in 1965, most of Watkins work has been produced in Scandinavia and British interest in subsequent films has been curiously absent. Declan Tan investigates why Peter Watkins’ directorial work, since […]