El Topo (1970)
First published by EyeforFilm “If you are great, El Topo is a great picture. If you are limited, El Topo is limited.” So says Alejandro Jodorowsky, writer, director and star … Continue reading
Bone Tomahawk (2015)
First published in Sight & Sound, March 2016 Synopsis: America’s frontierlands, after the Civil War. Having murdered some camping cowboys, bushwhackers Buddy and Purvis stumble into a valley and a … Continue reading
The Revenant (2015)
First published by Real Crime Magazine Some stories are so big and so compelling that they can survive any mutilation. Hugh Glass was a genuine fur trapper of the early … Continue reading
Yakuza Apocalypse (2015)
Longer version of piece published by Sight & Sound as part of coverage of the Cult programme at the London Film Festival 2015 Across an impossibly prolific and varied filmography, … Continue reading
Red Hill (2010)
First published by Little White Lies Once a flourishing outback community, Red Hill is an all-white island of outmoded Australian colonial values, marooned somewhere between the prehistoric past (see the … Continue reading
Slow West (2015)
First published by Grolsch FilmWorks “Go west, young man,” was a popular expression in the mid- to late-nineteenth century, as an injunction to new Americans to cultivate the fertile land … Continue reading
13 Assassins (2011)
First published by Little White Lies If 2007’s Sukiyaki Western Django refashioned Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 spaghetti western Django (itself heavily influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s 1961 Yojimbo) into a hyper-stylised post-modern reverie on the endless traffic … Continue reading
Dead Man (1995)
Review first published by EyeForFilm William Blake (Johnny Depp) is taking the long train journey north to a frontier town called Machine at “the end of the line”, where he … Continue reading
Four of the Apocalypse (1975)
Review first published by FilmLand Empire “Salt Flats, Utah. 1873. A bad town for a law-abiding citizen, and for this reason, Stubby Preston, a professional cardsharp, made it a point … Continue reading
Darkness on the Edge of Town (2014)
Review first published by Vérité When Cleo Callaghan (Emma Eliza Regan) goes into the local supply store to buy hollow-point bullets for her hunting rifle, clearly visible in the scene’s … Continue reading
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