Archive
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE – Daniel Hart
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Anne Rice’s 1976 novel Interview With the Vampire, while not originally a success, has since become regarded as a modern classic of Gothic horror literature, which revitalized the vampire genre after decades where the public perception of them was either a grotesque monster (á la Nosferatu), or a debonair blood-sucking aristocrat (á la Christopher Lee’s Dracula). Rice re-imagined vampires with more depth and emotional complexity, and created a global society for them to inhabit, running parallel to that of the humans on which they prey. The film spawned multiple sequel novels in the ‘Vampire Chronicles’ series, as well as an excellent movie adaptation in 1994 starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, which remains one of my favorite horror movies of all time. Now, the story is being re-told again as a TV series on the AMC network created by Rolin Jones, starring Jacob Anderson as Louis, Sam Reid as Lestat, Eric Bogosian as the interviewer Daniel Molloy, Bailey Bass as the child vampire Claudia, and Assad Zaman as the ancient leader of the Parisian coven, Armand. Read more…
THE LAST LETTER FROM YOUR LOVER – Daniel Hart
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The Last Letter from Your Lover is a British period romantic drama directed by Augustine Frizzell, adapted from the popular novel by Jojo Moyes. The film stars Felicity Jones as Ellie, a journalist tasked with writing an obituary for her recently-deceased editor. Having recently been involved in a painful romantic breakup, Ellie is fascinated when she discovers a series of passionate love letters in her newspaper’s archive, and decides to try to track down the letter writers and find out what happened to them. Ellie discovers that the letter writers were Jennifer (Shailene Woodley), a 1960s socialite, and Anthony (Callum Turner), a journalist, and that they met when Anthony came to write an article about Jennifer’s husband Laurence, a wealthy but emotionally distant industrialist. As Ellie uncovers details about their affair, and their powerful connection, she is also inspired to try to rekindle her own romantic life, and begins a hesitant relationship with Rory (Nabhaan Rizwan), the newspaper’s archivist. The story is a familiar one – it is essentially the same as A.S. Byatt’s Possession from 2002, and the Spanish film El Verano Que Vivimos from last year – but it is splendidly told, with lush period production values and an earnest Englishness to offset the sentimentality. Read more…
THE GREEN KNIGHT – Daniel Hart
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the oldest and most respected pieces of medieval literature in the world. Written in olde English by an unknown scribe sometime in the 14th century, it looks back some 400 years to the time of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. One Christmas, as Arthur and his knights are celebrating, their festivities are interrupted by a monstrous Green Knight, who challenges the court to a game: he dares any knight to strike him with his own axe, but that knight must seek him out the following Christmas and receive the same strike. The young and impetuous Gawain, Arthur’s nephew, rashly agrees, and beheads the Green Knight – only for the Green Knight to stand up, pick up his head, and leave, reminding Gawain of his obligation. What follows is an examination of the nature of honor and chivalry, temptation and seduction, as an increasingly agitated Gawain leaves Camelot in order to complete his quest to find the Green Knight – a journey which will, most likely, conclude with his own death. The film is directed by David Lowry, and stars Dev Patel as Gawain, with support from Alicia Vikander, Sean Harris, and Joel Edgerton, among others. Read more…
PETE’S DRAGON – Daniel Hart
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Pete’s Dragon is a new Disney remake of its own original 1977 film, a musical which starred Helen Reddy, Jim Dale, Mickey Rooney, and an entirely cartoon dragon, and which was nominated for an Oscar for its iconic original song, “Candle on the Water.” The new version, written and directed by David Lowery, is a very different, less comical take on the story. It follows the adventures of a young boy named Pete (Oakes Fegley), whose parents are killed in a car accident on a road trip, but who escapes without injury and flees into the woods. Pete spends the next six years living in the wild, where he is looked after by a huge, green, friendly dragon, a local legend in the area, whom Pete names Elliott. However, Pete’s idyllic life in the forest is interrupted when he is discovered by the young daughter of a forestry service ranger and taken back into civilization; meanwhile Elliott, who misses his young friend, ventures out of the woods and into town, where his existence risks being revealed to the townsfolk. It’s a lovely, sentimental, heartwarming film about childhood friendships, families, and respect of nature; it co-stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Wes Bentley, Karl Urban, Oona Laurence, and Robert Redford, and has been lauded by critics as a warm and appealing family film. Read more…
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