Review: Mother, a film by Bong Joon-ho

In the unlikely case you ever wondered about the pointless question of what a Pedro Almodóvar film would look like, had the Castilian filmmaker been born in Korea, I might have an answer for you: it would be something similar to Bong Joon-ho's latest film, Mother.

Mother is a sleek whodunit built around a powerful female figure which eludes genre convention more often than not and which tends to indulge in kitsch surrealism. As it usually is the case with Almodóvar's films, the combination of seemingly irreconcilable doses of elegance and exuberance result in an engrossing and absorbing movie.

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The curious case of Betty White

When the 17th Annual Screen Actors nominations were announced on December 16, many observers pointed out at Hilary Swank's nod in the Best Film Actress category for her performance as Betty Ann Waters in Conviction as the biggest surprise of this year's awards.

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Review: Another Year, a film by Mike Leigh

The object of Another Year, Mike Leigh’s latest film, is to make the viewer care about the joys and sorrows in the lives of a group of late-middle-aged friends and, for a film with no great deal of plot in the classical sense, Leigh’s endeavour is quiet an achievement. Weeks after you have seen the picture, its characters are still freshly and poignantly etched on your memory.

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