10 Films Set Beyond Our Solar System first published by BFI, 15 Dec 2022 Includes capsules of: Forbidden Planet, Planet of the Vampires, Solaris, Fantastic Planet, Dark Star, Star Wars, Flash Gordon, Dune (1984), Alien 3, Hard To Be A God In James Cameron’s Avatar (2009), tiny islands float over the jungle moon Pandora, sending…
The Game first published by Little White Lies, as entry 108 of my Cinema Psychotronicum column Coming hard upon the huge success of Se7en (1995), although in fact conceived before it, David Fincher’s The Game presents itself as a mystery to be solved. We know this because the opening credits sequence shows a grid of…
Zodiac first published by musicOMH “Finish this”, Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) is told by his wife Melanie (Chloë Sevigny) shortly after she has taken the kids and left him, fed up with his obsessive investigations into the Zodiac murders and the risks that it poses to their family. “Finish the book”, Detective Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo)…
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo first published in S&S Feb 2012 Review: “You can’t try anyone for what they did 35 years ago.” So complains journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) towards the end of David Fincher’s long-awaited The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, summarising the sense of helpless belatedness that pervades not only the…