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Reviews by Keith Hennessey Brown

Order by: Date, A–Z

  • Chuck Norris Vs Communism (2015)
    Review preview for Chuck Norris Vs Communism

    Worth watching for anyone with an interest in global video cultures.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3 out of 5
    The true story of how Romanians discovered the world through bootleg VHS.
  • Remake, Remix, Rip-Off (2014)
    Review preview for Remake, Remix, Rip-Off

    The discussions of the material realities of film-making in Turkey even into the 1970s are fascinating.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    The story of copying and culture in Turkish popular cinema.
  • The Make-Up Room (2014)
    Review preview for The Make-Up Room

    Even if the film is maybe slightly over-long you also feel that this is deliberate, thought out and worked through.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    Comedy about a make-up artist working on a porno film shoot.
  • Berberian Sound Studio (2012)
    Review preview for Berberian Sound Studio

    If you're a fan of gialli and horror all'italiana you'll enjoy playing spot the homage. If you're not a lot of the imagery and dialogue will simply go past you.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    In the 1970s, a British sound technician is brought to Italy to work on the sound effects for a gruesome horror film where his nightmarish task slowly takes over his psyche.
  • Killer Joe (2011)
    Review preview for Killer Joe

    This is the kind of film that it’s easier to admire than enjoy.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3.5 out of 5
    Life-insurance crime thriller.
  • Rabies (2010)
    Review preview for Rabies

    At times it seems the bright, overly lit land land is itself inimical to the characters.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 2.5 out of 5
    As a psycho killer lurks in the woods, a group of nervous people might represent a bigger threat to each other.
  • Weekender (2011)
    Review preview for Weekender

    The shame is that there’s the potential for a good film in here.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 2 out of 5
    A wild, kaleidoscopic romp through the rave culture of the 1990s.
  • Bleak Night (2010)
    Review preview for Bleak Night

    The direction is especially impressive, particularly when you consider that this is a first feature.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    Winner of the New Current Award at the 2010 Pusan International Film Festival.
  • Meet Monica Velour (2010)
    Review preview for Meet Monica Velour

    Fails to do anything that hasn’t been done before or better.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3 out of 5
    A young dork seizes the chance of a lifetime to meet the former porn star he idolises.
  • Almanya - Welcome to Germany (2011)
    Review preview for Almanya - Welcome to Germany

    Undeniably well put together at all levels.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3.5 out of 5
    Who or what am I - German or Turkish?' is the main question of this comedy about a Turkish family living in Germany since the late Sixties.
  • The Ballad Of Genesis And Lady Jaye (2011)
    Review preview for The Ballad Of Genesis And Lady Jaye

    The film appears to have had a long and somewhat troubled genesis of its own.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 2.5 out of 5
    Documentary depicting the love story between Genesis P-Orridge and Lady Jaye.
  • Phase 7 (2010)
    Review preview for Phase 7

    Thanks to the general levels of intelligence evident behind and in front of the camera, it works far more often than not.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    A couple have trouble with their neighbours as the apocalypse dawns.
  • Au Revoir Taipei (2010)
    Review preview for Au Revoir Taipei

    Such a sweet and fun little film that it's hard not to warm to it and be utterly won over by the time its hour and a half is up.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    Lightweight and funny crime caper about a desperate man trying to score an air fare.
  • Fog (2009)
    Review preview for Fog

    Intelligent writing, direction and performances.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3.5 out of 5
    Unreliable narrators and late-twenties hedonism in a strange brew.
  • White Lightnin' (2009)
    Review preview for White Lightnin'

    Screenwriters Eddy Moretti and Shane Smith play rather too fast and loose with the facts at times.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3.5 out of 5
    The outrageous cult story of Jesco White, the dancing outlaw.
  • Katalin Varga (2009)
    Review preview for Katalin Varga

    Strickland reveals an eye for landscape and place that for me recalled early Werner Herzog.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    A woman is disowned after it is discovered that she has been raped, prompting her to seek revenge.
  • Giallo (2009)
    Review preview for Giallo

    Provides a solid framework for plenty of classic Argento images, suspense, shocks and splatter.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    As a killer stalks and kidnaps beautiful young women, how far will the local detective have to go to stop him?
  • Vinyan (2008)
    Review preview for Vinyan

    Beart and Sewell do their best, but their characters’ relationship lacks the sexual(ised) tension of their counterparts in Don’t Look Now.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3 out of 5
    A couple searching for their missing child find themselves in ever more desperate circumstances.
  • The Girlfriend Experience (2009)
    Review preview for The Girlfriend Experience

    There’s nothing particularly radical about what Soderbergh is doing here.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3.5 out of 5
    Pornography is made subject to philosophy in this speculative art film.
  • Salvage (2008)
    Review preview for Salvage

    British horror directors are playing it too safe at present.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3 out of 5
    A divorced mum faces trouble when a military experiment goes wrong.
  • Outrage (2009)
    Review preview for Outrage

    Gets its serious point across adroitly and with considerable wit.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3.5 out of 5
    Documentary focuses on the hypocritical voting records of closeted gay politicians.
  • Black Dynamite (2009)
    Review preview for Black Dynamite

    The key to Black Dynamite’s success is that the film-makers know the difference between a good-bad movie and a bad-bad movie.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4.5 out of 5
    Blaxploitation spoof.
  • Jerichow (2008)
    Review preview for Jerichow

    There is no question that Petzold is his own film-maker.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    Three misbegotten strangers stumble into a fateful encounter.
  • Female Convict Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973)
    Review preview for Female Convict Scorpion: Beast Stable

    This is the kind of film that epitomises all that was best about the Japanese cinema of the period.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    The on-the-run convict is befriended by a young prostitute but it isn't long before fresh revenge beckons.
  • Bloody Moon (1981)
    Review preview for Bloody Moon

    It is notable that for every slasher trope there also seems to be a giallo one.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 2.5 out of 5
    A killer targets the students at a language school.
  • Devil Hunter (1980)
    Review preview for Devil Hunter

    The new footage in this integral version leads to more of an extended remix rather than a radically different film, as can often be the case in Franco's notoriously tangled filmography.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 2 out of 5
    A starlet is kidnapped and taken into a cannibal-infested jungle.
  • Judex/Nuits Rouges (2008)
    Review preview for Judex/Nuits Rouges

    The exploits of a masked hero and villain.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    Double dose of masked magic from Georges Franju
  • Judex (1963)
    Review preview for Judex

    Franju beautifully captures the style of his silent serial models with intertitles, irising and other archaic effects, while also using his camera in a thoroughly modern and personal manner.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    Tales of a master of disguise who is the self-appointed scourge of the underworld.
  • Nuits Rouges (1974)
    Review preview for Nuits Rouges

    The more you bring to the film the more you will get out of it.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 2.5 out of 5
    A masked criminal goes in search of the treasure of the Knights Templar.
  • Hell's Ground (2007)
    Review preview for Hell's Ground

    This is an experimental movie, doing something no one has attempted within Pakistani cinema before.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3.5 out of 5
    Pakistani horror flick along traditional slasher lines - young people, road trip, Leatherface lookalike, oops!
  • Diary Of The Dead (2007)
    Review preview for Diary Of The Dead

    The gore quotient is sufficiently high, while the documentary-style direction gives a rawness and immediacy that adds immeasurably to the impact.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3.5 out of 5
    Film students try to record the end of civilisation as they know it when the dead begin to walk. Plus read our with George A Romero.
  • The Wave (2008)
    Review preview for The Wave

    Taken as an edutainment drama that provides the viewer with a salutory reminder of the need to be ever vigilant against his or her own inner authoritarian, The Wave is a success.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3.5 out of 5
    A high school teacher demonstrates with his class the true meaning of autocracy.
  • Obscene (2007)
    Review preview for Obscene

    I found myself wanting to know more than I was being told.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 2.5 out of 5
    Documentary about Barney Rosset, who challenged obscenity laws most famously in the case of Lady Chatterley's Lover.
  • Let The Right One In (2008)
    Review preview for Let The Right One In

    Not quite like anything you've seen before, and very much the better for it.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4.5 out of 5
    A touching story of first romance... with a side-serving of horror.
  • The Cool World (1964)
    Review preview for The Cool World

    You really believe that you are there with these people, living in their world.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 5 out of 5
    Stark portrait of 1960s Harlem.
  • Left Bank (2008)
    Review preview for Left Bank

    The filmmakers keep you wondering about the characters and their motives throughout.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    Atmospheric horror film in the vein of Rosemary's Baby, with a descent into obsession and madness with the previous occupants of her boyfriend's flat.
  • Mechanical Love (2007)
    Review preview for Mechanical Love

    Taken in its own terms Mechanical Love is a success, though I found myself drifting into avenues that are left unexplored at times whilst watching it.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3.5 out of 5
    Artificial Intelligence and the Uncanny Valley, androids that we can love bookend the story.
  • To See if I'm Smiling (2007)
    Review preview for To See if I'm Smiling

    We likewise learn little directly about the women's lives after they have finished their service, other than what they wish to tell us. And it is here that the genius of the film is most in evidence.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    Candid revelations about things seen and done in the Israeli military.
  • Timecrimes (2007)
    Review preview for Timecrimes

    This Spanish made thriller just about manages to make the old time travel paradoxes fresh.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    When a man accidentally travels back in time, he finds restoring the status quo is easier said than done. Plus read our exclusive interview with director Nacho Vigalondo.
  • Very Young Girls (2007)
    Review preview for Very Young Girls

    Perhaps the most horrifying aspect of the film is what it reveals about US culture and society more broadly.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3.5 out of 5
    An examination of young girls as they are duped, tricked and coerced into selling themselves for sex in a surprising, and people-focussed film.
  • Hostel: Part II (2007)
    Review preview for Hostel: Part II

    The scenario piles improbability upon improbability in an attempt to introduce fresh twists to an already exhausted premise.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 2.5 out of 5
    A bunch of annoying American students get tricked by stereotypical Eastern Europeans.
  • Beware Of A Holy Whore (1971)
    Review preview for Beware Of A Holy Whore

    As with most of Fassbinder's work it is very much an acquired taste, requiring that one accept the notion of film as something more than just entertainment, as a tool to make one think.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    Film within a film about a movie cast who try to make the best of a bad job when they find themselves short of funding. Out to own on the RW Fassbinder Commemorative Collection: Vol 1.
  • The American Soldier (1970)
    Review preview for The American Soldier

    While some of the noir/expressionist compositions are undeniably effective as images, there is the sense of a certain lack of integration into the whole.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 2.5 out of 5
    A Vietnam vet who finds himself in a romantic mess after being contracted by cops to kill some gangsters. Out to own now on the RW Fassbinder Commemorative Collection: Volume 1.
  • The Raven (1935)
    Review preview for The Raven

    Both leads are certainly in fine form, with Karloff's more understated approach generating the necessary element of sympathy for his tragic character.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3 out of 5
    An evil surgeon becomes obsessed with a woman he saves and plots to keep her as his own.
  • Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
    Review preview for Berlin Alexanderplatz

    There can be little question that it is a masterpiece.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4.5 out of 5
    The life of a ex-con trying to go straight in 1920s Berlin is released on DVD after a massive restoration project by the original editor.
  • Ballad Of Narayama (1958)
    Review preview for Ballad Of Narayama

    Unquestionably one of the most beautiful films I have seen, every shot is designed, composed, lit and photographed to perfection.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4.5 out of 5
    A grandmother prepares for her last journey - to be taken to the mountains to die - but her son struggles to accept her fate.
  • Oedipus Rex (1967)
    Review preview for Oedipus Rex

    If Oedipus Rex is a challenging film for those used to more conventional aesthetic approaches this is thus with good reason and, in many respects, the entire point.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    Pasolini's reworking of the tale of Oedipus. Out to own as part of the box set.
  • Night Of The Eagle (1962)
    Review preview for Night Of The Eagle

    Probably the finest hour-and-a-half of director Sidney Hayers' long and generally undistinguished career,

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4 out of 5
    A college psychology lecturer discovers that his wife is a practising witch.
  • Southern Gothic (2007)
    Review preview for Southern Gothic

    The horror/vampire elements fundamentally feel like something of an afterthought.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3 out of 5
    Vampires in church.
  • Ghost Of Mae Nak (2005)
    Review preview for Ghost Of Mae Nak

    Content to be a genre film.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3 out of 5
    A young couple fall foul of a ghost.

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