Last week a friend alerted me to the imminence of ‘Blue Monday’ – the third Monday of January, believed by some to be the most depressing day of the year. With the current state of uncertainty, that’s an even more dubious superstition than it has been in the past, but since I fully accept that … Continue reading Brighteners for ‘Blue Monday’: a dozen sources of pleasure
With the exception of festival reports and annual round-ups I haven’t written very often here about new movies, but every now and then something comes along which I feel merits a bit of a plug. Now, it might seem strange to be doing this for a movie by filmmakers as well known as Joel and … Continue reading The Ballad of Buster Scruggs: western approaches by the Coens
Ever since I first became seriously interested in the cinema, I have considered Orson Welles one of the very finest filmmakers of all time; and whenever I’m invited to do the impossible and nominate one movie as the greatest ever made, I usually opt for Citizen Kane. So I was obviously one of those Welles … Continue reading The Other Side of the Wind: at last it can be seen.
A few days ago, a documentary I’ve been wanting to see ever since it won the best direction prize at Sundance was made available to watch on Netflix; the film has been garnering positive reviews pretty much wherever it’s screened, so I jumped at the chance to catch up with it at last. It was … Continue reading Shirkers: the film that never was, but is now.
notes and observations by Geoff Andrew 