This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
It’s a real shame that this film has been caught in the controversy following the events of 7 October 2023. This is Jesse Eisenberg’s very personal project, and he does appear to have been very generous with his time and money towards securing good Polish-Jewish relations. (Poles suffered, too. Six million Polish citizens died in the Second World War, of whom three million were Jewish.)
It's fair to say that the film is dominated by Kieran Culkin as Benji, cousin…
This is a film released by the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic’s film distributor. Thus, although it is a ‘Soviet film’, it also has some standing as a Ukrainian film. It commemorates the Kiev Arsenal Uprising of January 1918, during the struggle between Ukrainian nationalist forces that were attempting to create a Ukrainian People’s Republic, and the Red Army supporting Bolshevik-inspired workers’ movements throughout the former Russian Empire. (In a bit of historical trivia, note that the boundaries of the Ukrainian…
A Letterboxd Consensus Top 100 Films for 1963-72
#48 The Wild Bunch
For those who are following this series, my apologies for the hiatus. I have been moving house over the last six weeks, but now I can resume more regular viewings of films, amid all the unpacked boxes.
Is this the film that started it all? Possibly, although Michael Cimino’s HEAVEN’S GATE is also a candidate. ‘It all’ refers to me moving from a passive movie-goer into someone who…
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
A Letterboxd Consensus Top 100 Films for 1963-72
#46 Au Hasard Balthazar
A sign that one is perhaps a mature film-goer is that moment when one can appreciate a Robert Bresson film. Note that I didn’t say ‘enjoy’, because his approach to film-making is quite challenging in this darkest timeline, where many of our childhood engagements in cinema come via well-meaning parents taking us to Disney films. (Do I regret taking my eldest daughter to see LILO AND STITCH as…
