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Film reviews in a nutshell
Categories: Documentary | Comments Off
The-Gatekeepers

No one situation is as controversial as the Israeli-Palestine one, so any further insight into the views of those involved in its history naturally provide a fascinating and ultimately compelling screen account. These Heads of Security or ‘Gatekeepers’ of the Shin Bet, Israel’s secret service agency who were tasked with decision making on ‘security’ in [...]

Categories: BFI LFF 2012, Documentary | Comments Off
mea-maxima

In the week that has seen the shock resignation of Pope Benedict XVI comes a brutally uncompromising documentary about the clerical child sex abuse scandal and the extraordinary lengths the Catholic Church went to cover it up which goes all the way to the highest echelons of the Vatican. The Pontiff is in fact the [...]

Categories: Documentary | Comments Off
filmgaze-project-nim

Director James Marsh of the fascinating 2008 film, Man On Wire, this time gives us jolt of clarity into our ‘playing God’ actions, one filled initially with both hope then despair that ultimately makes you ashamed to be human. Unfortunately for Project Nim, it has the sci-fi action adventure, Rise of the Planet of the [...]

Categories: Documentary | Comments Off
filmgaze-just-do-it

Award-winning documentary film-maker Emily James’s latest ‘window on life’ comes at a very appropriate time when most of us are feeling rather impotent and disillusioned at the way modern-day existence is heading, what with global capitalism ruling the planet and banks (and newspaper organisations) pulling the strings of those in power. Just Do It and [...]

Categories: Documentary | Comments Off
filmgaze-countdown-to-zero

Good documentary film-making informs and provokes debate, and hopefully, addresses all sides of the argument. So in recent times, we’ve had some highly emotive big-screen subject matter (Inside Job’s banking crisis, for example) that’s naturally one-sided to stir up a hornet’s nest of public outrage. It seems film-makers need to find a common concern to [...]

Categories: Action, Documentary | Comments Off
filmgaze-TT3D

If you’ve ever wondered what the appeal of riding is, no matter how we bikers try in vain to convert you to two wheels from four, Richard De Aragues’s new documentary film is an excellent place to start. Ok, it’s the extreme version of riding, but it absolutely hammers the message across in the bluntest [...]

Categories: Documentary, Drama, Thriller | Comments Off
filmgaze-blooded

You can’t deny that a film’s synopsis about a bunch of activists chasing a bunch of semi-naked hunt supporters across the Scottish glens doesn’t sound a tad appealing? And that’s the immediate hook of debut director Edward Boase’s new ‘blood sports’ film, Blooded. The first issue to overcome, though, is ‘realism syndrome’, where everything slightly [...]

Categories: Documentary, Family | Comments Off
filmgaze-justin-bieber

How do you review a Justin Bieber film? If you’re a fan, it doesn’t make a blind bit of difference what critics write – you’ve got the screening time, the date and the cinema ticket already. So, this is aimed at the non-fan, the curious, and those yet unaffected by ‘Bieber fever’. Is it worth [...]

Categories: BFI LFF 2010, Documentary | Comments Off
filmgaze-inside-job

With recent news of 200 RBS bankers possibly getting £1 million pound bonuses each, surely the last thing you’d want to see is a film about these smug fat cats and the global financial meltdown they helped cause. There will be popcorn directed at the screens for sure. But like a taunt fictional thriller – [...]