RICHARD’S BLOG

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  • My ‘Top 3 and a Bit’ Films about Films

    For the last few weeks I have immersed myself in films about films. This meta, rather self-indulgent subject has attracted many of the heavyweight US and European directors over the past seventy years, several of them more than once, although strangely it does not seem to be of much interest to Asian directors. The actual…

  • REVIEW:  Hot Milk ★★★☆☆

    Hot Milk is a new English drama film, written and directed by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, based on Deborah Levy’s 2016 Booker-longlisted novel. It premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on Valentine’s Day and was released in the UK on 4 July.  Essentially this a is a stirring, Irish family drama, but set in the searing…

  • My ‘Top 3 and a Bit’ Erotic Thrillers

    Just over a month ago, when I posted my last Top 3 and a Bit list, I said that my next list-post would be on Erotic Thrillers. After a month of watching these, many of which proved to be utterly dire, and a fair bit of reading around the subject (The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary…

  • REVIEW:  The Ballad of Wallis Island ★★★★☆

    The Ballad of Wallis Island is a new British comedy-drama, written by Tim Key and Tom Basden, based on their 2007 short film The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island, and directed by James Griffiths. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and was released in the UK on 30 May. …

  • REVIEW:  Along Came Love ★★★★☆

    Along Came Love (Temps d’aimer) is a French period drama set in the 1950s and 60s about repressed desires, forbidden love and the effects of living with the resulting shame. The film was directed by Katell Quillévéré, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Gilles Taurand. It premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival (where it…

  • REVIEW:  The Salt Path ★★☆☆☆

    The Salt Path, released in the UK last Friday, is an adaptation of Raynor Winn’s memoir of her long-distance walk with her husband Moth along the northern section of the Southwest Coast Path. It is directed by Marianne Elliot (her first feature-length film), from a script by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, so it has a solid theatrical pedigree…

  • REVIEW:  Darling     ★★★★☆

    Darling is an incisive and biting social satire of London’s jet set culture in the swinging sixties – so says the BFI’s information sheet, and who am I to argue with that. Made in 1965, directed by John Schlesinger from a script by novelist Frederick Raphael, a new 4K restoration was re-released in the UK…

  • My ‘Top 3 and a Bit’ films about Poets

    Here is my fifth list: my ‘Top 3 and a bit’ films about Poets. I feel the need to stress that this list is my favourite films about poets, rather than my favourite poets. When assessing films about real people, it is easy to fall into the trap of judging the film based on preconceptions,…

  • REVIEW:  Hallow Road ★☆☆☆☆

    Hallow Road is a 2025 British horror/thriller drama, directed by British/Iranian filmmaker Babak Anvari. It had its world premiere at some Texan Film Festival that I had never heard of, and was released in the UK last Friday. I caught it this morning at the Everyman in Harrogate. The set-up to the film is that a married couple…

  • REVIEW:  Good One ★★★★☆

    Good One is a 2024 American drama, the directorial debut of India Donaldson, who also wrote and produced the film. It had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and was released in the UK yesterday. Since I was already at the Pictureville Cinema, Bradford for The Marching Band, it seemed churlish not to do the double-bill.…