Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Thirty years on, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is still the film that haunts me the most. I can feel it scratching behind my eyes, screaming in my ears and shrieking at my soul. Consciously, I’m...
Author: Mark Farnsworth
Senior Film Writer Mark Farnsworth teaches Film in East London and is currently working on two screenplays, The Mysteries and Fair Access. He also writes the Oh/Cult section for Brokenshark.co.uk.
Blonde: “biographical fiction meshed with misery porn”
We’re hurtling through fire in 1933, the hyperspace of hell circling a forlorn automobile, winding its way to the Hollywood Hills in search of false salvation. Inside, a young Norma Jean watches...
September 2022 horror streaming round-up
As my mood fluctuates wildly between hatred, despair, and grief due to wretched state of the UK under this despicable Tory government, I have increasingly found myself drawn to the horror genre on...
“Few directors can make an audience suffer like Cronenberg can”: Crimes of the Future
There are many indelible images in David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future but none so tortuous as Viggo Mortensen’s performance artist, Saul Tenser, contorted on a feeding chair grown from bone...
“Creeping dread increases inches at a time”: Men
Harper Marlowe, the protagonist in Alex Garland’s astounding third feature, Men, has one of those names that conjures up an array of literary possibility. Could she be part Harper Lee, observing...
Review: The Northman
The collective eyes of the cinema-going public may be held aloft (quite rightly) watching Tom Cruise fly jets for real in Top Gun: Maverick but another, more caustic film has made its way onto VOD...
Review: Ambulance
No one should feel sorry for Michael Bay. Let’s get that straight from the off. His sledgehammer blockbusters have grossed close to 8 billion dollars so he should be set for a rainy day. His five...
April 2022 streaming round-up
Many years ago, during my BFI film journalism course, Nick James, the former editor of Sight & Sound told my class that it was impossible to watch every film released and the sooner we realised...
Review: Red Rocket
If God loves a trier then He must fucking worship Mikey ‘Saber’ Davies in Sean Baker’s latest movie Red Rocket. He’s a handsome, charming, reprehensible douchebag, a spray-and-pray asshole...
Review: Licorice Pizza
Much like Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest movie, Licorice Pizza is a film for all six senses. There is no living director preternaturally gifted at evoking a time or place we have...