Penrose Film Critiques

When you first hear the unearthly chimes and eerie calls of Goblins haunting soundtrack, you remember the technicolour nightmare that is Dario Argento's Suspiria ( 1977). While his filmmaking has had its ups and downs from the skin crawling Deep Red (1975) and Phenomena (1986) to the laughable Dracula 3D (2012), there is no doubt that his legacy and honing of the Gialli subgenre has made him one of the greats of horror cinema. So when we heard that a remake of his beloved Suspiria was in the works, you can imagine the scepticism of critics reaching its boiling point before the film had even been released. However this reimagining of the mesmerising tale would prove to be a mixture of new ideas and themes while blending in with the supernatural scenes of gore and beauty. Luca Guadagnino, straight after is heart warming summer romance Call me by your name (2017), made it clear straight away to the press that he would treat the original ' Suspiria ' with care. Showing t...

"Everything that can go wrong, goes wrong". The quote from the 2002 documentary Lost in La Mancha , really does sum up the journey of unfortunate events surrounding Terry Gilliam and his cursed film project around the classic tale of Don Quixote del La Mancha. So after more than 30 years of deals, casting changes and rewrites, we finally see the finished product of a directors magnum opus. Unfortunately it seems like a story 30 years too late. The man who killed Don Quixote  follows the tale of Tony Grisoni (Adam Driver), a Hollywood director portraying the biblical story of the same name with a crew that cannot understand his creative vision, sound familiar? However he is sent on a nostalgic trip to his amateur film days and reconnects with a crazed Spanish shoemaker (Johnathon Pryce) who believes he is the incarnation of Don Quixote. What follows is a mixture of hallucinogenic spectacle and blundering humour but none of the magic and wonder. Firstly lets look at the cast...

Unfortunately, if you're looking for a guide on how to stop your greenhouse from spontaneously combusting, I cannot help you. But the latest film from acclaimed author and director Lee Chang-dong, might make you think twice before you see a flamming glass cornucopia in the distance. Burning is a fresh wild take on the thriller genre with a drawn out pace mixed with brilliantly simplistic visuals to give a new meaning to violence and rage in Korean cinema. The film follows aspiring writer Jong-soo (Yoo Ah-in) as he runs into high school friend Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo) who after an intimate reunion, requests that he look after her cat while she travels to Africa. She returns however with the sinister yet eccentric Ben (Steven Yeun), whose introduction sends Jong-soo down a rabbit hole of mystery, disappearances and ominous greenhouse fires. Firstly you have to give credit to the brilliant triple threat casting of our main characters. Yoo and Jeon would seem out of their leagues c...