The Howling is arguably the first really great Joe Dante film. I would also make the case that it’s the only really great werewolf film ever made. It was Dante’s first film post his work in the Roger Corman school of filmmaking, where he came of age as a movie maker. At the same time, [...]

The Red Turtle is a dialogue free animated film that was released by Studio Ghibli. It was a Japanese-French-Belgian production directed by a Dutch animator. It’s about a human who gets shipwrecked on a tropical island which is inhabited by turtles, crabs and birds. From there it’s about the cycle of his life, and especially [...]

 Psychos in Love is a really silly film that came out the '80s and quickly became a cult favourite on the VHS market. It's heavily influenced by the cult film The Honeymoon Killers, but I actually prefer this. It's kind of as if Troma remade The Honeymoon Killers as a ridiculous horror comedy.   The title characters are a strip club [...]

Life is Sweet was only Mike Leigh's third feature-length film. Like Ken Loach, who he is somewhat unfairly compared to, Leigh worked almost exclusively in TV during the '70s and '80s. His previous film, High Hopes, had been a big hit at festivals, and even ended up playing the US arthouse circuit to high acclaim. Then Life is [...]

A Kind of Murder is the latest in a long line of Patricia Highsmith adaptations. It's based on one of her earliest novels The Blunderer which has been renamed for the purpose, to this even more generic title. The genericness of the title is unsurprisingly reflected in the film which has some virtues not many [...]