Courtesy photo
This perfectly silly attempt to tell a feminist story set in the Dark Ages is marred by an unusually spiteful attitude to violence. Early on a man is stabbed through the head and delivers a punchline before dropping dead. Later there’s an extended sequence about how difficult it is to throw a body off a cliff in a way which the body’s face is destroyed. It’s this sour tone which lingers despite the cast being a remarkable combination of British comic talent, making “Seize Them!” a misfire.
Continue reading “Queen It Over” »
Ross Ferguson/Number 9 Films
MOVIE REVIEW
Living (2022)
The omnivorous remake culture in which we swim is fueled by many things, but you assume motivations for recycling “Ikiru” did not include mass public recognition of the original property, however high the regard for Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 film in cineaste circles. That said, themes of elderly regret and the nature of a life worth living are universally poignant, as the funding proposal to Film4 and its production partners no doubt mentioned. In this case the deciding factor was quite probably the involvement of screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro, whose story “The Remains of the Day” was about the drastic overhaul of Great Britain underway in the 1950s and the benefits of finding something to like about the present; exactly the setting and central concern that Mr. Ishiguro has brought into “Living.”
Continue reading “The Aged Civil Servant” »