Nick Bartlett

Freelance Writer

Critical popcorn •

Hunt for the Wilderpeople [10th Anniversary] review: Dir. Taika Waititi

Watching Hunt for the Wilderpeople today, it’s impossible not to think of Sam Neill, who sadly passed away last month. Neill was obviously most identified with Jurassic Park, but his role as the irascible “Crocodile Dundee fella” in Taika Waititi’s fourth feature now feels like one of the defining roles of the final act of his career, which makes this ten-year anniversary rerelease from Vertigo unexpectedly poignant.
FILMHOUNDS Magazine •

The Last Viking (Film Review) - Absurdity, Torture and Heart

A man who believes he is John Lennon, buried loot, intense childhood trauma, graphic torture scenes, and animated sequences about vikings – these do not sound like ingredients that belong in the same film. Yet Anders Thomas Jensen somehow combines these disparate elements into a decidedly unconventional, but heartwarming comedy. The Last Viking is an eccentric balancing act, veering wildly between black comedy and emotional drama.
FILMHOUNDS Magazine •

The 10 Best Hitchcockian Thrillers

There’s a special kind of prestige reserved for directors whose names have become part of the cinematic lexicon.  Most of us know what to expect when a film is described as “Lynchian” or “Kubrickian” but there’s no director who has been emulated more than Alfred Hitchcock. “Hitchcockian” has become a shorthand for unbearably tense thrillers that feature voyeurism, mistaken identities, McGuffins, icy blondes and elaborate set-pieces.

Charade Review (Criterion Collection)

Famously described as “the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never made“, Stanley Donen’s Charade has spent more than sixty years being either mistaken for the work of another director or measured against his filmography. The comparisons are understandable – there is a dead man, a missing fortune, a glamorous heroine pursued across Paris, a MacGuffin everyone is desperately hunting, and enough twists to keep audiences guessing until the final reel.
FILMHOUNDS Magazine •

Familiar Touch (Film Review) - Tender, Thoughtful, and Deeply Moving Debut

Most films about dementia are built around loss. Whether it’s the psychological horror of The Father or the devastating emotional realism of Amour, the condition is usually depicted as a tragedy already in progress. Sarah Friedland’s feature debut, Familiar Touch takes a different approach. Friedland has described it as a “coming of old age” story, and this perspective shapes the entire film.

Body Heat Review (Criterion Collection)

It feels like Criterion is skimping on the extras a little nowadays, focusing more on the picture quality and restorations than the supporting materials, which is a little galling considering how much the price of these has risen. A lot of the special features included here were available on the Premium Collection release – these include deleted scenes, featurettes on the making of, and archive interviews with Hurt and Turner. The new features include an in-depth interview with Kasdan, and a con...
FILMHOUNDS Magazine •

The General (4K Review) — A Masterpiece Of Silent Comedy

Having released almost all of Buster Keaton’s filmography on various Blu-ray boxsets, Eureka Entertainment are marking the centenary of his masterpiece, The General, with this beautiful UHD release. Co-directed with Clyde Bruckman, this remains not only one of the defining works of silent cinema, but arguably the first true action-comedy: a perfect fusion of gags, spectacle and pathos that still feels startlingly modern a century later.

Obsession Review

With his sophomore feature, Curry Barker takes a premise we’ve seen countless times before in sitcoms, teen comedies and science fiction for decades, from Buffy The Vampire Slayer to The Twilight Zone and even Rick & Morty. What happens when you wish for your unrequited love to fall hopelessly in love with you? What makes Obsession so effective is the way it refuses to treat this ostensibly light-hearted premise as a joke. Instead, Barker simply follows the idea to its logical, grisly conclusion...
Critical popcorn •

Cronos review: Dir. Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro’s directorial debut is a startlingly assured gothic fable that fuses vampirism with the director’s now-trademark fascination with arcana, alchemy, clockwork machinery and an underlying sense of the macabre. There are better debuts out there, but very few that come with the director’s sense of style and tone already so clearly cemented. From the very start, you can see the style that will be present in every subsequent del Toro film.

Hard Boiled 4K Review (Arrow)

Even if you haven’t seen Hard Boiled, you’ve almost certainly seen the promotional image of Chow Yun-Fat, decked out in full tactical gear, shotgun in one hand, a very confused-looking baby in the other. It’s instantly iconic, equal parts absurd and deadly serious, and perfectly captures the film’s tone. This is action cinema pushed to its most operatic extreme, but with just enough self-awareness to prevent it from collapsing under its own intensity – never taking itself too seriously.

Salem's Lot Review (Arrow Films)

In his introduction to the paperback release of Salem’s Lot, Stephen King described his lofty ambitions for what was only his second novel: to combine the gothic terror of Dracula with the sensationalism of EC Comics and the naturalistic fiction of Frank Norris. The result is one of his most overt works of horror – a traditional vampire story transposed into small-town New England – and it remains one of his most genuinely frightening books.
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