Film Features

With Venom out this week, Andrew Carroll looks back on his personal favourite superhero Every time another Marvel movie comes out I let out a little sigh. I don’t like superheroes anymore. The glut of them that’s hit cinemas in recent years…

Some people find their work follows them wherever they go. Agatha Christie's great detectives cannot escape mayhem and murder even on their holidays. Christie’s Belgian detective has been appearing onscreen for 90 years in various…

Released in 1998, Ronin was a modest box office success that’s remembered today more for its car chases than its plot. The film is a standard 1990s thriller whose true stars are the cars despite the acting heavyweights in the cast. But,…

The conflict in Northern Ireland has provided the narrative fuel for many an Irish film in the past 30 years. Neil Jordan made Angel and The Crying Game, Jim Sheridan directed In the Name of the Father and The Boxer. On top of this, there…

Whether being praised or hated, Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan has shined internationally through his films. Critics often highlight his youth (at 29 he has already made seven films), separating him from more accomplished directors. Some…

Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat, Jet Li. These are names most Western audiences will know from films like Enter the Dragon, the Rush Hour franchise; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Expendables films respectively. They are also…

"An idle mind is the devil's playground"

I approached Showcase’s series Picnic at Hanging Rock with some trepidation. As a major fan of both Joan Lindsay’s original 1967 novel and Peter Weir’s 1975 film adaptation, all of the same name, would it be possible to approach it without…

"...as dark as midnight and as sombre as the grave" 1948 was a good year for film, without doubt. Among the thousands produced were classics of cinema such as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Bicycle Thieves, Oliver Twist, The Red Shoes,…

It’s hard to pick the funniest moment in Burn After Reading. Is it George Clooney’s dildo chair? Is it the photo of Richard Jenkins dressed as an Orthodox priest? Is it Brad Pitt’s dancing? All of these moments are great but it might be how…