By Gareth Jones For fans of intense, thought-provoking films as well as fantastic performances by women, and Sarah Polley I think it is safe to say that after four brilliant directed films, Sarah Polley is one of the best directors working today, regardless of her gender. However, her gender and perspective are vitally important to all of her work.  She started out as an actor in one of my all […]

By Gareth Jones For fans of “slow” cinema, Spanish film, photo-lyric realism or poetic realism Last week on Sleep In Cinema we talked about Victor Erice and his masterpiece Spirit of the Beehive. However, we could not help ourselves and also talked about his second film, which is equally a masterpiece. Released in 1983, ten years after Spirit, El Sur is an adaptation of the short novel of the same […]

By Gareth Jones For fans of screwball comedies, post code but still spicy Hollywood, Irene Dunne, and fans of the name Mervyn Released in 1936, a couple of years after the implementation of the Hays Code, Theodora Goes Wild is a commentary on the self-censorship of Hollywood and the hand-wringing of American society.  It tells the story of youngTheodora Lynn, member of the namesake family of conservative small town Lynnville.  […]

By Gareth Jones For fans of Andrei Tarkovsky, Experimental Documentaries, Nuclear Waste concerns (who isn’t concerned?) Released in 2022 (not to be confused with the horror film with the same title) this experimental Lithuanian documentary is directed by Emilija Škarnulytė.  It has the pacing of Tarkovsky as well as his immersive cinematography.  It focuses on the Ingnalina Power Plant in Lithuania which was the sister power plant to Chernobyl.  After […]

By Gareth Jones   For fans of J-Horror, Atmospheric Ghost Stories, Japanese Folk Horror Released in 1968 (the same year as Witchfinder General, one of the Unholy Trinity of Folk Horror and to which there are many similarities) Kuroneko is Kaneto Shindo’s second horror masterpiece.  Set in war-torn medieval Japan (mirroring the post-WWII economic chaos) it tells the story of a mother and daughter-in-law who are brutally raped and killed […]

By Gareth Jones For the first time since 2020, Sundance held an in-person festival and it was a wondrous return.  There was an energy and level of excitement that was palpable.  Seeing great films in a theater with a collection of film-lovers is the best way to experience films.  It is unmatched. Film festivals are still a vital part of the cinematic ecosystem and Sundance is the first of the […]

By Gareth Jo André Øvredal’s career was launched with this humorous and remarkably poignant found-footage love letter to the traditional trolls of Norwegian folk tales.  Before moving on to The Autopsy of Jane Doe and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Øvredal used the limitations of the found-footage horror genre to challenge his team to create something innovative and entertaining.  The story is simple.  A bear is suspected of […]

By Gareth Jones For fans of poetic cinema, Lindsay Anderson, folk horror, experimental cinema Sight and Sound has compared this unique film to other British films such as The Wicker Man and A Canterbury Tale, both examples of the conflict between old and contemporary Britain.  This film, directed by noted painter and editor David Gladwell, meets much of the same criteria of folk horror, including some startling rape scenes.  The […]

By Gareth Jones For fans of violent slapstick humor, Indonesian martial arts with lots of gore, Timo Tjahjanto, and…did I mention gore? Timo Tjahjanto has amassed an impressive resume in ten years of directing on his own.  He burst (literally) onto the scene with Safe Haven, his contribution to V/H/S/2. He continued in the horror genre with two May the Devil Take You films, while also making two extraordinary martial […]