Funny Games (aka Funny Games US) first published by Film4 Summary: Michael Haneke rewinds and replays his games of cinematic violence in this doubly uncompromising English-language remake of his 1997 film. Review: When directors remake their own films for an English-speaking audience, there tends to be an element of cultural reduction, or ‘dumbing down’ – after all,…
Mysterious Skin first published by Movie Gazette Hutchinson, Kansas. In the summer of 1981, eight-year old Brian (George Webster) is sitting in the rain at a Little League game. Fives hours later he wakes at home, with no idea how he got there – and from then on his life is plagued with nosebleeds, bedwetting,…
The Childhood fo a Leader first published by SciFiNow “This has happened before, and it will continue to happen again and again.” In 1919, journalist Charles (Robert Pattinson) discusses the Great War with the Father (Liam Cunningham) in a villa outside Paris. There the Father bullies his younger polyglot wife (Bérénice Bejo) and their son Prescott…
Simon Killer first published by Film4. Synopsis: Antonio Campos’ equally disturbing follow-up to Afterschool (2008) observes a young American Euro-tripper unleashed onto the hunting grounds of Paris. Review: “My thesis project was about peripheral vision. It dealt with something called crowding and size pooling. The width of one object is given a weighted average of the…