Return of the Jedi: Blockbuster Craft Meets Commercial Strategy Return of the Jedi, the final film of the original Star Wars trilogy, opens with a high-stakes rescue sequence. R2-D2 and C-3PO join Leia Organa, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, and Luke Skywalker in an effort to free Han Solo from the clutches of the crime lord Jabba … Read more
Barry Lyndon (1975) Director: Stanley Kubrick Screenwriters: Stanley Kubrick Starring: Ryan O’Neal, Michael Hordern, Marissa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Leon Vitali, Marie Kean Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon stands among the director’s most visually ambitious and formally daring works. Released in 1975 and adapted from William Makepeace Thackeray’s novella “The Luck of Barry Lyndon,” the film represents … Read more
The New Mutants (2020) Director: Josh Boone Screenwriters: Josh Boone, Knate Lee Starring: Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Blu Hunt, Henry Zaga, Alice Braga Originally scheduled for release in 2018, The New Mutants finally reached audiences in 2020 after a long and complicated delay. Based on the influential comics by Chris Claremont, Bob McLeod … Read more
Paul Verhoeven is one of cinema’s most misunderstood and versatile directors. From intimate arthouse work in Europe to brazen, sexually charged studio pictures in Hollywood, and the polarising spectacle that was Showgirls, his career resists easy categorization. Beyond his well-known taste for provocative imagery, Verhoeven has repeatedly returned to political and moral questions, using shock, … Read more
The Darjeeling Limited (2007) Director: Wes Anderson Screenwriters: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman Starring: Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody, Amara Karan, Waris Ahluwalia, Natalie Portman, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray “Yes, the past happened. But it’s over, isn’t it?” – one of the many very poignant lines in Wes Anderson’s emotionally charged The Darjeeling … Read more
This article was written exclusively for The Film Magazine by Eve O’Dea of eveonfilm.com. Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) Director: Agnès Varda Screenwriter: Agnès Varda Starring: Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller, Dominique Davray, Dorothée Blank Agnès Varda is often cited as the lone prominent female voice of the French New Wave, and her filmography has … Read more
Tenet (2020) Director: Christopher Nolan Screenwriter: Christopher Nolan Starring: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Caine, Clémence Poésy, Himesh Patel, Aaron Taylor-Johnson Time is a central force in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, a high-concept, time-bending spy thriller that returns the director to large-scale, original filmmaking. Nolan invites audiences back into the cinema … Read more
Da 5 Bloods (2020) — Review Da 5 Bloods (2020) Director: Spike Lee Screenwriters: Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee Starring: Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Chadwick Boseman, Mélanie Thierry, Johnny Tri Nguyen, Paul Walter Hauser, Jean Reno 2020 has been a difficult year for film … Read more
Get Duked! (2019/20) Director: Ninian Doff Screenwriter: Ninian Doff Starring: Samuel Bottomley, Viraj Juneja, Lewis Gribben, Rian Gordon, Eddie Izzard, James Cosmo In recent decades British cinema has produced a string of distinctive voices, and emerging directors continue to refresh the landscape. Ninian Doff, known previously for his striking music videos, makes a confident feature … Read more
This article was written exclusively for The Film Magazine by Paul A J Lewis of paul-a-j-lewis.com. ‘The filmmaker must […] attack on all fronts!’ – José Mojica Marins (1936-2020) “Making a film in Brazil is like building a spaceship and sending it to the moon. We have no resources. The filmmaker must invent a persona. … Read more