Martyrdom in The Ascent is wrought like iron on an anvil, each blow stripping away the dross of flesh and fear until only the pure, unyielding core of the soul remains. Sotnikov walks his path not with the triumph of a saviour but with the grim inevitability of a man who understands the weight of his choice. The cold, the snow, the hollow ache of hunger—they do not break him but refine him. His body betrays him, his voice falters,…
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TRON: Legacy 2010
When I was 17 I asked my local paper if I could write weekly film reviews for the newest releases. The nearest cinema to me was 16 miles away in the snow and I couldn't manage to go see Tron: Legacy that week. Too scared to let the editor down (as if he gave two shits) I made up a review from what I imagined the film to be like judging on the trailers I'd watched. I commented on the…
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Uncut Gems 2019
After a brief sojourn in an exploitative Ethiopian opal mine, evoking themes of the poorly hidden costs of Western prosperity, we’re plunged headfirst into a microcosmic coral reef of psychedelia like ‘Planet Earth’ meets ‘The Tree Of Life’. Is it a nanoscopic crystalline maze? A supercelestial nebula? Or maybe the expressionistic shitpipe of a New York bling dealer?
Howard Ratner joins the Safdies encyclopedia of desperate deplorables, following on from protagonists like juvenile father Lenny, heroin addict Harley and screw-up…
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X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes 1963
“What do you see?”
“The city… as if it were unborn. Rising into the sky with fingers of metal, limbs without flesh, girders without stone. Signs hanging without support. Wires dipping and swaying without poles. A city unborn. Flesh dissolved in an acid of light. A city of the dead.”My first foray into Roger Corman’s particular brand of filmmaking was surprisingly rewarding. While I expected a shlocky, B-movie mess filled with enough horror/sci fi gimmicks to keep me involved…
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