Apr 2019
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2019 Film Reviews – 26: Avengers: Endgame [dir. Anthony Russo & Joe Russo; 2019]
Although I’m someone who loves the idea of superhero movies in principle – mainly for the fantastical, imagination-expanding potential they offer – I know full well that a product as overhyped, over-marketed and overblown as Avengers: Endgame is ripe for being reduced to a ridiculous pulp. But that attitude would ignore the film’s achievements, of… Continue reading
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2019 Film Reviews – 25: 3 Faces [dir. Jafar Panahi; 2018]
I’m not sure how a director banned from making films succeeds in creating not one, but several pieces of work since the restriction was imposed upon him, but there we are — Jafar Panahi is back with another characteristically elliptical effort. This time he tels the tale of an actress and a director who feel… Continue reading
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2019 Film Reviews – 24: Captain Marvel [dir. Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck; 2019]
As the world of Marvel Comics movies becomes increasingly all-devouring and the recent films sometimes feel like little more than a game of ‘Spot The Latest Celeb Trying To Bulk Up Their Pension Fund’ (in this case: Jude Law and Annette Bening), it’s difficult not to see Captain Marvel as a mere interlude before the… Continue reading
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2019 Film Reviews – 23: Shoplifters [dir. Hirokazu Koreeda; 2018]
It’s interesting to consider whether Japanese social-realist cinema is currently at the same stage as the kitchen sink dramas of 1960s Britain. As he did in Nobody Knows, director Hirokazu Koreeda certainly displays a commendable willingness to take the veil off the refined exterior of modern Japanese life with this tale of a poverty-stricken band… Continue reading
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2019 Film Reviews – 22: The White Crow [dir. Ralph Fiennes; 2018]
If nothing else, The White Crow deserves praise for being a biopic that pretty much stays faithful to the bio. Some would argue that by choosing to end with Rudolph Nureyev’s defection in Paris in 1961, it omits the more tempestuous elements of the man’s life, but at least what’s there is fairly accurate, as… Continue reading
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2019 Film Reviews – 21: Clueless [dir. Amy Heckerling; 1995]
Ten minutes into watching Clueless for the very first time, I got the distinct impression that I’d seen it before. But that’s precisely because of how terrifically influential this US high-school-set update of Emma turned out to be, not just on the countless cinematic pretenders that came after it, but on an entire generation’s use… Continue reading
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2019 Film Reviews – 20: Unacknowledged [dir. Michael Mazzola; 2017]
This is the stage in my ‘one-para review’ project where I inform you that not all the films I watch are my own choice. Some (like Looper from a weeks ago) are selections made by a close relative under the banner of a mini film club he and I have created (is a membership of… Continue reading
About Me
I am a writer and award-winning perfume critic currently living in the south of England and working on a novel. For my perfume-related writing, please visit Persolaise.com.
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DARIUSH ALAVI 