Moon Monkey

An exploration of responsibility, karma and death that manages to sustain an atmosphere of overwhelming dread throughout. The film opens with a surgeon Stephen Murphy, played by Colin Farrell, as he performs an operation. We see the open-heart surgery in grisly details in an extended shot of the organ pulsating as the doctors hands move in to operate. It is a scene that focuses the mind and will ensure that you put down whatever you were eating to pay attention. Farrell's character is shown to be meeting with a young boy, Martin, who appears to be somewhat unusual. We later learn that this boy was the son of a patient who died during one of Stephen's operations. When Farrell's son wakes up to find himself paralysed from the waist down, he is told by Martin that unless he kills one of his own family, his son, daughter and wife will all die. This death is required as payment for the death of his father, who he believes was murdered by Stephen due to malpractice during...

Mulholland Drive (2001) review

Arguably David Lynch's masterpiece, this surreal, nightmarish crime-thriller, blending everything from soap opera melodrama to straight up horror showcases his immense talents as both a writer and director. Watching Mulholland Drive is an experience unlike any other film I have ever seen as it tests you on a number of levels, with its miasmic dream-world capturing your imagination in a way that few films ever manage. The real strength here is that so much is left unexplained. While the latter portion of the film helps to define and explain some of the apparent inconsistencies of the preceding story there are a number of moments, characters, and mysteries that are unresolved even on a third of fourth viewing. The film begins with a dark-haired woman played by Laura Harring being driven up the winding road of the title, that snakes into the hills of Los Angeles. After being involved in a car accident, she stumbles downhill towards the sleeping town, taking refuge in the fir...

The Death of Stalin (2017)

A seemingly unlikely source of humour, this dark comedy takes a look at the final days of the "Great Terror" and the chaotic aftermath of Stalin's death, when his closest allies in the party begin jockeying for power. The film treads a fine line between horror and comedy. In the early scenes we see an orchestral performance that is going out live over the radio. When Stalin sends a message to say he would like a recording of the night's concert, which they have failed to record, the technicians are forced to recreate the entire show again from the beginning. It is hilarious to see them persuading the orchestra to begin again, and taking random members of the public off the street to fill out the audience, some of whom have already departed, but at the same time terrifying to think that the people were living in so much fear of this dictator. Similarly in the high commands talks of "disappearances" of certain people there is a sense of laughing through g...

Twitter

Tweets by m00nmonkey

Report Abuse

Powered by Blogger