I initially took this to be a facile screed on recidivism, primed to discuss and dissect the failure of government while we weep for the hard-done hardman who has no choice but to return to his life of crime. To an extent that is Straight Time. But only in the superficial metre. I was a little surprised by Dembo’s criminal revival – it seemed sudden, and without real emotional or narrative stakes. Even in the wake of humiliation, no doubt…
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Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time 2021
An ending of endings, so much a summation as a goodbye; this is Evangelion at its most and its least ecstatic. Enormous amounts of time are spent getting there – yet more heedless nonsense piled atop itself – but on arrival the impression is not that of absolution (as in EoE), but relief. A resignation of sorts: so many characters compliment Shinji on his new perspective; where previous endings depict his anagnorisis, it seems here Anno prefers the aftermath. A…
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They Shall Not Grow Old 2018
Among the unruly film conservationist community – an elusive and underloved subsection of society at the best of times – there is much discontent afoot. Peter Jackson’s latest project, a commission from the Imperial War Museum to mark the centenary of the First World War’s conclusion, has been considered by some in said community to be an act of barbarity, an unjustifiable marring of historical record for the sake of empty titillation. This project, entitled They Shall Not Grow Old,…
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The Other Side of the Wind 2018
A cynic might suggest The Other Side of the Wind cannot be considered a true Orson Welles picture. After all, the man isn’t around to denigrate it, and hasn’t been for a long time. Isn’t this just a cobbling together by friends and colleagues; the long-dead resurrected, but not quite the same? But then, what Welles film is ‘true’, besides Citizen Kane? His filmography is a sort of grand tragedy, whereby a master at 25 was stifled for the remainder…
