The Big Picture Magazine
It’s difficult to pinpoint precisely when the political process finally surrendered to the whim of the media machine and devolved into little more than a playground trade-off centred on bite-sized slogans and soundbites. ‘Playing the game’ has become a damning pre-requisite for those who seek to govern us, as Robert Redford’s idealist-turned-stooge Bill McKay comes […]
With the UK’s General Election now over, those curious about what goes on behind the scenes of an election campaign may find interest in The War Room, a documentary produced by D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus as they followed the campaign staff of Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential run. Trailing the team from the early […]
The weight of memory has long been portrayed as an onerous facet of life, and in Wong Kar-wai’s 1997 film Happy Together, it’s as heavy as a ball and chain. “Lai Yiu-Fai, we could start over,” is the first line we hear, but Yiu-Fai has heard his boyfriend Po-Wing say it numerous times before. Their […]
Long before the box office submitted to the inevitable adaptation of E. L. James’ mummy porn juggernaut, another altogether more fascinating Mr Grey indulged in a spot of big screen sadomasochism. It helps that the Mr Grey of Steven Shainberg’s Secretary (2002) is played by the jittery genius that is James Spader, whose career has […]
The lengths people go to when seeking fame and fortune has been a prime target for many comedians, not least Woody Allen. Celebrity (1998) gives a broad and characteristically cynical take on the lives of the rich and famous, as well as the not-yet-rich and the not-quite-famous-enough, undoubtedly drawing on the director’s own long Hollywood career. […]
Have there ever been two artists more different from each other than director Abel Ferrara and singer Madonna Louise Ciccone in Dangerous Game? Although Madonna is an icon of artificiality and calculation, Ferrara is one of brute sincerity and bedraggled aesthetics. Even Ferrara’s occasional forays into the exploitation market also belie any interest in genre […]
Hardly ones to take themselves too seriously, the Fab Four nevertheless provided the perfect foils for the grandfather of music mockumentaries. Before Rob Reiner’s This is Spinal Tap (1984) there was The Rutles: All You Need is Cash (1978), a Beatles parody given form partly thanks to its lead guitarist George Harrison. Originally conceived as a […]
Los Angeles, 1977: Two years after China and Russia engage in germ warfare, Colonel Robert Neville (Charlton Heston) believes he is the only person immune to the resulting plague that wiped out the world’s population. Seemingly, the only other survivors are a cult of plague sufferers (known as “The Family”) led by Matthias (Anthony Zerbe) […]
Richard Stanley’s grim and gory debut may never be counted among the greats of science fiction, but that hasn’t stopped it chiselling out a place in the hearts of a loyal band of cult followers. Squabbles over the rights to Hardware meant the only way to check it out for a good few years was […]