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Crazy in Love: Anderson’s Gothic Sprinkled Romance Deserves to be Tarred and Feathered

Fresh off the surprise box office success of 2013’s Halle Berry headlined The Call, director Brad Anderson returns to the creepy confines of the mental ward with Stonehearst Asylum, reminiscent of his well received 2001 film, Session 9. Assembling another terrific cast for this period piece, those familiar with a fine tradition of Gothic cinema will immediately begin to pick up on the threads of Edgar Allan Poe that inspired the macabre switcheroo generating the dramatic conflict. But even before we get to that point, Anderson’s latest arrives Doa, a cold, tepid turkey that isn’t ever sure of the mood it wishes to generate. Scenes fluctuate rapidly, and we’re left to decide whether this is supposed to be a prim and proper brooding romance of stiff corsets and constricted consecrations, a downright queasy...

As long-time fans of Sound on Sight may know, many of us here are more than a little fond of Doctor Who. Not only does the Incomparable Kate Kulzick write a column covering the current series but for almost two years now we have been hosting our very own Doctor Who podcast dedicated to reviewing the good, the bad and the just plain weird of both New and Classic Who. In other words, our beloved website has slowly and rather deliberately been transformed into a virtual hive of Who, which is only fitting for such a venerable television institution that will turn fifty later this year.

It wasn’t always easy being a Whovian, especially growing up in Montreal, which is hardly a bastion of British broadcasting. For years I was the only Who fan I knew; I’m not saying that watching the show was illegal, but chances were...

Topol, Tom Conti, Edward Fox and John Gielgud add up to one clever biopic, if you subtract 45 minutes of flagging in the middle

Galileo (1974)

Director: Joseph Losey

Entertainment grade: C+

History grade: A–

Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer and mathematician, and one of the most important historical figures in the development of modern physics.

Casting

It's 1609, and a skint, grumpy Galileo teaches mathematics in Padua. He is played by Topol. Yes, Topol, from Fiddler on the Roof. Critics were sniffy at the time, complaining that he didn't bring intelligence to the role – unlike, they said, the mostly British supporting cast, which includes Tom Conti and Edward Fox. In fact, Topol isn't that bad. He emphasises Galileo's earthiness instead of restrained scientific dignity, but that's a reasonable interpretation. The real Galileo is said to have played theatrically to audiences in Pisa, climbing the famous tower and throwing objects of...

Judi Dench leads a starry British cast in John Madden’s comedy drama, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Here’s Ryan’s review of a pleasant, undemanding film…

The filmmakers of the British Isles excel at making very specific types of film: horror flicks, realistic dramas and feel-good romantic comedies. With a name like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and featuring a glittering ensemble of the UK’s finest actors of a certain age, you can probably guess which category the subject of this review falls into.

Displaying a similar lightness of tone as dependable British hits such as Love Actually and Four Weddings And A Funeral, Marigold Hotel is a pleasant, easy-going evening’s entertainment that delivers everything you could rightly expect of it. There are laughs. Arguments. Romance. A little bit of tragedy, a smattering of pathos, a sprinkling of poignancy. It’s undemanding and a tad predictable,...

Rank the week of June 28th’s Blu-ray and DVD new releases against the best films of all-time:new Releasesthe Warrior’S Way

(Blu-ray and DVD | R | 2010)

Flickchart Ranking: #8698

Times Ranked: 631

Win Percentage: 39%

Top-20 Rankings: 0

Directed By: Sngmoo Lee

Starring: Kate Bosworth • Geoffrey Rush • Danny Huston • Tony Cox • Dong-gun Jang

Genres: Action • Fantasy • Martial Arts • Western

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Sucker Punch

(Blu-ray and DVD | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #2081

Times Ranked: 4896

Win Percentage: 44%

Top-20 Rankings: 19

Directed By: Zack Snyder

Starring: Emily Browning • Abbie Cornish • Jena Malone • Vanessa Hudgens • Carla Gugino

Genres: Action • Adventure • Drama • Fantasy • Fantasy Adventure • Girls-with-Guns • Psychological Drama • Thriller

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Season Of The Witch

(Blu-ray and DVD | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #9846

Times Ranked: 1288

Win Percentage: 36%

Top-20 Rankings: 4

Directed By: Dominic Sena

Starring: Nicolas Cage • Ron Perlman • Stephen Campbell Moore • Stephen Graham • Ulrich Thomsen

Genres: Action • Action Thriller • Adventure • Adventure Drama • Drama • Fantasy • Fantasy Adventure • Supernatural Thriller • Thriller • Witchcraft

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From the Guardian, 21 May 1979

Apocalypse Now is not the greatest film of the decade, or even of the year. The world premiere at the Cannes festival on Saturday was actually nothing of the sort; rather, it was the latest (but not the last?) in a long series of previews which have gone on over the past year. […]

One doesn't have to be a purist to think that a director ought to know how his films should end, and what scenes to cut and which to include, without having to ask audiences all over the world for their opinion.

Again, Coppola has a ready answer to this objection: the film has been 10 years in the making, and he feels too close to it to make any decisions himself. I couldn't help thinking of the Balzac short story, The Unknown Masterpiece, in which a painter works for decades in secret on his masterpiece which,...

Sex-obsessed newts, a vampire vine, slime moulds – nature films of the interwar wars focused not on big beasts in exotic places but on the world around us. Robert Macfarlane hails a golden age of natural history documentary.

In the summer of 1903, the hottest ticket in London was for the Alhambra Music Hall in Leicester Square, where a minute-long silent film called Cheese Mites was showing to packed houses. The film was the work of an amateur naturalist called Francis Martin Duncan, who had hit on the idea of pointing a motion-picture camera down a microscope. Cheese Mites, the result of his experiments in micro-cinematography, was a miniature B-movie masterpiece. An Edwardian gentleman sits at a table, browsing his newspaper through a reading glass while lunching on bread and cheese. He idly turns his glass upon his cheese and – horror! – discovers it to be seething with dozens of "great uncanny crabs...

Latest: Chris Brown has added further weight to rumours he is dating R+B star Rihanna by dropping hints about the romance to the audience at a recent gig.

The pair has been at the centre of speculation since they were photographed frolicking in a Jamaican swimming pool together last month.

Brown, who is in London for a series of live dates, was also snapped leaving a hotel with the Bajan beauty in the early hours of Saturday morning.

And now the 18-year-old singer has given the strongest clue yet that they are indeed a couple.

He told the crowd at the Indigo O2 venue on Sunday night, "If I was the prince of R+B, then I would need a princess," and launching into a remix of Rihanna's hit single Umbrella.