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I n the 2013 dark comedy Everyone’s Going to Die, writer/director collective Jones set out their stall early. Melanie (Nora Tschirner) wakes up dazed and blurry-eyed from a house party, dressed as Charlie Chaplin. In the cold light of day, she tells fellow guest Ali “I’m lost,” and then smokes a cigarette. The scene sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the film and ultimately encapsulates what every ‘seaside weepie’ is about. Movies set in coastal towns and seaside resorts are nothing new (Brighton Rock and Local Hero are but two popular examples) but this sub-genre of British cinema has only emerged in the last 20 years or so, arguably brought to the attention of larger audiences through Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light . No doubt this curious set of films is influenced by the renewed interest in these seaside locations by DFLs (people who are Down From London) who are, for better or worse, changing the landscapes of coastal towns as we know them. These often low-budget indie flicks ...

A fter nearly 40 years of iteration, perhaps the most immediately striking thing about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is how gangly the Ninja Turtles now look. Under the direction of Jeff Rowe (co-writer and co-director on The Mitchells vs the Machines), they look compellingly awkward and adolescent, each given a unique physical stature. Such expressivity and intentional roughness carries through to the rest of the film’s captivating and expressive design, its grimy, luminescent vision of New York rooftops (which recalls the 90s live-action film in some ways), alleys and undergrounds built from lopsided lines, the VFX and lighting illuminating its strange nightlife textured with pencil scribbles. If films like Into the Spider-Verse feel ripped from a comic book, the vividly imagined Mutant Mayhem feels ripped from the margins of a teenager’s notebook (I half-expected the “ Cool S ” to appear onscreen). Add in a thundering electronic score from Trent Reznor and Atticus ...

A t the outset, it felt like the cinemas of Pakistan were just as excited for Barbenheimer as the local movie-goer community. Local theaters were offering two-for-one deals – cheaper tickets for one of the biggest movie events in recent memory. The fact that they were even acknowledging the existence of the dual release of Oppenheimer and Barbie felt promising: if you could buy tickets, that had to mean you would get to see the films, right? Cinemagoers weren’t so sure, since the local censor board can be volatile. It’s usually safe to strike anything that isn’t a four-quadrant blockbuster off the calendar, and even local films aren’t safe: last year, Saim Sadiq’s Joyland , a film that won the Jury Prize at Cannes, was banned from screening in the Punjab province . That movie, which touches lightly upon queer issues, has nothing on the full-frontal nudity and controversial maps of Oppenheimer and Barbie, and the prospect of both films being banned felt depressingly conceivable...

O n Thursday 20th July the stars Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer walked out of their London premier. The American actors’ union SAG-AFTRA had voted to strike, and so members Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh were unable to continue promoting their film as part of industrial action. Until the dispute is settled, members of SAG-AFTRA will not act or promote their work on publicity tours or social media. They join members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), who have been striking since 2nd May. A brave move, considering that Studio Executives have already said that they are willing to ‘starve out’ striking writers. The walk-out was a significant moment that is now part of a very long history of striking and union activity in Hollywood. Despite the buzz around both Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (whose lead Margot Robbie has stated that she supports the strikes ), promotion by actors can be crucial. Their opening weekend indicates that both films will...

S ome may roll their eyes to the back of their head like Reagan in The Exorcist at Australian YouTubers RackRacka (aka Danny and Michael Philippou) making the leap to feature filmmaking, but their daring modern horror employs its central concept of teenagers using demonic possession to get high as a thrilling and emotionally engaging exploration of grief, peer pressure and teen life in the digital age. The twin brothers behind the film have spent years making DIY horror-comedy and their passion and knowledge of the genre is glaringly apparent in this thoroughly disturbing debut. The film hits the ground running with a violent prologue at a party all shot in one impressive and energetically paced take. The stakes are high from the start so that when the main characters are introduced you’re already anxious for their safety. Exceptional newcomer Sophie Wilde stars as Mia who is grieving her mother’s death. It’s the day of the one-year anniversary of her passing and she’s looking to d...

U nlike most forms of popular music, heavy metal has a definitive origin story that both fans and scholars can agree on: in the beginning, there was Black Sabbath. Of course, heavy rock had already started to harden in the back half of the 1960s (Cream, Hendrix, Iron Butterfly et al) but Sabbath’s formation in 1968 still stands as metal’s definitive creation myth – a brutal new form of rock ‘n’ roll forged in the fires of England’s industrial North. But there was a problem – they weren’t called Black Sabbath. Not yet anyway. Initially the Birmingham fourpiece went by Earth – much too hippy-dippy. Stuck for a suitable replacement, inspiration would suddenly strike bassist Geezer Butler when he spotted people queuing for a revival screening of Mario Bava’s 1963 Black Sabbath across the road from a rehearsal room. This newly adopted moniker would push the group’s songwriting in a darker direction – “We wanted to create the vibe you get off horror films,” guitarist Tony Iommi would late...

I n the realm of contemporary culture few can be said to effectively evoke the image of the effortlessly cool girl that has become synonymous with the name Jane Birkin. If you can’t put a face to the name, chances are you have come across throwaway references to Hermès’ eponymous Birkin bag in a slew of early 2000s TV and film. Contrary to what one might think when seeing the sheer number of online guides listing the Dos and Don’ts of how to qualify for a chance to purchase a $15,000 luxury handbag, the inspiration behind what is now a universally recognized status symbol is quite unlike its namesake. Born in Marylebone, West London, Jane Mallory Birkin was the daughter of English film/stage actress Judy Campbell and Navy lieutenant commander David Birkin. She grew up in the affluent district of Chelsea and attended boarding school, where she recounts being bullied for her waifish, androgynous physique, a hallmark of the quintessential Birkin look. At 17 Birkin was already married ...

W riting can be a lonely pursuit, and authors must often rely on those closest to them for support and feedback as they attempt to navigate the process of constructing a story. So it goes for Beth (Julia Louie-Dreyfus), a novelist who has just finished her second book – a follow-up to her reasonably successful memoir. She has what she believes to be a good marriage therapist husband Don (Tobias Menzies), until she overhears him criticising her new novel to her brother-in-law Mark (Arian Moayed). Devastated by what she perceives as an emotional betrayal, Beth turns to her sister Sarah (Michaela Watkins) for advice about how she should proceed. Holofcener has built a career out of crafting intimate relationship studies (centered, more or less, on the white middle class) and it’s worth acknowledging as much if only to indicate that it’s remarkable she manages to create such rich characters within the framework. Perhaps it’s a case of ‘write what you know’ being genuinely good advice, b...

T he week before the 34th edition of Festival international du cinéma de Marseille (FIDM), there is trouble in the air. Since the death of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk at the hands of police in Paris in late June, riots have been breaking out across France, with citizens protesting what they deem a callous, blatantly racist murder. Although the disruption has slowed by the time I arrive in Marseille, signifiers of dissent remain: ‘Justice pour Nahel’ graffiti, incinerated rubbish bins and shattered shop windows. On opening night, it is confirmed that another man, a 27-year-old Marseille local, has died in hospital after being shot by the police with rubber bullets. The news spreads as Whit Stillman’s preppy campus drama Damsels in Distress plays incongruously in the open-air cinema of Le Théâtre Silvain. It is a funny time to be going to a festival. Introducing her film The Night Drags On the following night, Matilde Girard acknowledges the events outside. A psychoanalyst as well as ...

I f you don’t know what you want to do with your life by the time you’ve left your teens, you might get the feeling that you’re somehow falling behind. Despite the fact that you’re still pretty young, society expects you to have it all worked out: the degree, the career, the full five-year plan. Often an unattainable goal, the pressure leaves many feeling lost and directionless from an early age. This phenomenon is something thoroughly explored in FX’s sleeper hit The Bear. In season one, we’re introduced to Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto (Jeremy Allen-White) and Sydney ‘Syd’ Adamu (Ayo Edebiri) who have, on paper, managed to achieve this almost impossible feat. Carmy has won a James Beard Award and is widely regarded as an up-and-coming presence in the culinary world. Syd, a Culinary Institute of America graduate, has already had a bittersweet taste of success – the catering business she established failed in part due to overdemand for her services. Young, talented and sure of their path...

T he writer, critic, cultural historian, hiking enthusiast and all-round intrepid man of letters Mark Cousins does himself a disservice by minimising his own redoubtable presence from his new film, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock. This archive clip-driven documentary comprises Cousins’ own informed and poetic postulations on the inner-workings of the Hitchcock corpus, as he heads on a jolly, thematically-inclined ramble through one of the great artistic legacies of the 20th century. Yet, instead of placing himself front and centre, trading on the fireside comfort of his angular intonation and impassioned mode of inquiry, we instead have voice impressionist Alistair McGowan giving us his best Hitch, a jowly East London drawl that goes some way to emulate the voice of the Master of Suspense, but not far enough to allow a viewer to suspend all disbelief. It’s a cheeky little conceit, and one that’s executed as well as it perhaps could’ve been, but it’s also a baffling one, and it’s never...

I t’s a great shame that throughout the Barbie press cycle, seemingly no one has asked Greta Gerwig about Marcel Proust. The multihyphenate is an avowed fan – there’s a throwaway joke about his (literally and figuratively) heavy work in Frances Ha , and in LWLies’ 2018 interview with her, she refers to the quasi-Proustian memory experience of making the semi-autobiographical Lady Bird . In Barbie, her consumerist behemoth that brings America’s sweetheart out of the box and onto the screen, Proust once again makes an appearance, when Margot Robbie’s picture-perfect Stereotypical Barbie steps inside her plastic packaging, and remarks that the familiar smell is a Proustian memory. “Ugh, remember Proust Barbie?” Will Ferrell’s nameless Mattell CEO nods to his team of Yes Men. “That did not sell well.” Perhaps this could be dismissed as another quirky joke, in a film that also makes reference to “The Snyder Cut” and the universally beloved BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, but gi...

I n early June, Studio Ghibli announced that animation legend Hayao Miyazaki’s most recent – and apparently, final – film How Do You Live? (retitled The Boy and the Heron for its global release) would be dropped sans marketing, but for a single poster. This somewhat daring decision came from producer and studio executive Toshio Suzuki, who said that “ deep down, I think this is what moviegoers latently desire. ” In the same interview with Japanese magazine Bungei Shunji, Suzuki said, “There’s an American movie – ah, I almost said the title out loud! – coming out this summer around the same time [as How Do You Live?].” He continued, “They’ve made three trailers for it… If you watch all three, you know everything that’s going to happen”. Suzuki is not-so-subtly name-dropping Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, a big-budget film that’s taken a more ‘Hollywood’ approach. The film’s expansive marketing campaign included two teasers and one main trailer, music videos, a coordinated cast reveal, inte...