Posts by Matt Thrift

The Iron Mask

By Matt Thrift

Not even a Schwarzenegger-Chan showdown is enough to salvage this unfathomably dire action folly.

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Richard Stanley: ‘I got a phone call at 3am from a guy claiming to be Nic Cage’

By Matt Thrift

The cult director discusses his long-awaited return to mainstream filmmaking with Color Out of Space.

‘When people came to Rome, they only wanted to meet the Pope and Fellini’

By Matt Thrift

Fiammetta Profili reflects on her time working with Federico Fellini during his final decade.

Marriage Story

By Matt Thrift

Noah Baumbach delivers what just might be his masterpiece with this bitterly funny divorce drama.

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Terminator: Dark Fate

By Matt Thrift

New model, same result: Cameron, Schwarzenegger and Hamilton reunite for this serviceable belated sequel to T2.

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James Gray: ‘I was armed with an 800lb gorilla – the movie star’

By Matt Thrift

The Ad Astra director on how Brad Pitt helped him to make the sprawling sci-fi opus he had inside his head.

La Flor

By Matt Thrift

An epic in the literal sense of the world. Mariano Llinás goes long with this thrilling paean to genre cinema through the ages.

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Never Look Away

By Matt Thrift

One of Germany’s most important living artists is the subject of this dud biography from Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

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John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

By Matt Thrift

Keane Reeves’ ‘excommunicado’ protagonist wages a one-man war in this ante-upping threequel.

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Tolkien

By Matt Thrift

Nicholas Hoult stars in this bland literary biopic of the life of Lord of the Rings scribe JRR Tolkien.

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The White Crow

By Matt Thrift

Ralph Fiennes directs this staid biography of ballet maestro and political dissident, Rudolf Nureyev.

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Lee Chang-dong: ‘Today we are living in Murakami’s world’

By Matt Thrift

The South Korean maestro talks literary inspiration and his mysterious new psychodrama, Burning.

Laura (1944)

By Matt Thrift

A new Blu-ray edition provides an opportunity to revisit Otto Preminger’s slyly subversive noir masterpiece.

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An Elephant Sitting Still

By Matt Thrift

Hu Bo’s search for hope and humanity in present-day China is a monumental debut tinged with tragedy.

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Dead Souls

By Matt Thrift

This eight-hour epic from Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing chronicles one of the worst atrocities in human history.

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The Wild Pear Tree

By Matt Thrift

Turkey’s foremost dramatist returns with his most imposing and impressive film to date.

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The best new films from New Horizons Film Festival 2018

By Matt Thrift

Some of the strongest emerging voices in world cinema took centre stage at the Polish festival’s 18th edition.

David Lynch’s ‘Room to Dream’ is an intimate, humanising self-portrait

By Matt Thrift

This wonderful new book is the most comprehensive overview of the filmmaker’s life and career to date.

Hal Hartley: ‘I try to juxtapose the male gaze with female independence’

By Matt Thrift

The prolific independent filmmaker reflects on his career ahead of Henry Fool’s 20th anniversary.

Lucrecia Martel: ‘History is more arbitrary than science fiction’

By Matt Thrift

It took the best part of a decade to bring Zama to the big screen. Its writer/director tells us about her epic journey.

Unsane

By Matt Thrift

Formal ambition aside, there’s nothing out of the ordinary about Steven Soderbergh’s iPhone psychodrama.

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Mute

By Matt Thrift

Duncan Jones’ spiritual sequel to Moon is a neon-drenched nightmare – and not in the way anyone intended.

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Unsane – first look review

By Matt Thrift

Steven Soderbergh’s unconventional iPhone movie is one of his strangest offerings to date.

The Shape of Water

By Matt Thrift

Guillermo del Toro’s latest is a fairy tale for grown-ups with a cinephile twist – it may be his most perfect confection to date.

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Face to Face: Liv Ullmann on her life with Ingmar Bergman

By Matt Thrift

The screen icon speaks candidly about her remarkable career, and her complicated relationship with the late Swedish master.

John Boorman on Kubrick, Connery and the lost Lord of The Rings script

By Matt Thrift

The legendary British director of Deliverance, Excalibur and Zardoz looks back over his extraordinary career.

David Fincher: ‘Moviemaking is a rat f*ck, every day is a skirmish’

By Matt Thrift

The alchemist behind Fight Club and Zodiac discusses his newest true crime saga, the Netflix Original series MINDHUNTER.

Loving Vincent

By Matt Thrift

A curious artistic experiment amounts to little more than that in this so-so Vincent Van Gogh biopic.

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My Journey Through French Cinema

By Matt Thrift

Director Bertrand Tavernier waxes lyrical about the great and the good of French cinema in this wonderful documentary.

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Steven Soderbergh: ‘There’s no new oxygen in this system’

By Matt Thrift

The American director discusses his long-awaited return to feature filmmaking with Logan Lucky.

Findings from a rare screening of Jacques Rivette’s masterpiece, L’Amour Fou

By Matt Thrift

The director’s astonishing 1969 film was shown from the only known 35mm print in existence.

Atomic Blonde

By Matt Thrift

Charlize Theron blasts her way through Cold War-era Berlin in this glib actioner from John Wick’s David Leitch.

review

What to see at New Horizons Film Festival 2017

By Matt Thrift

Poland’s biggest arthouse extravaganza returns with a special tribute to Jacques Rivette.

Tales From the Darkside: An interview with George A Romero

By Matt Thrift

The horror maestro reflects on his unique and remarkable career in this previously unpublished interview.

The 30 greatest car chase scenes in movie history

By Matt Thrift

How many of these pulse-quickening set pieces have you seen?

Miss Sloane

By Matt Thrift

Jessica Chastain takes it to The Man in this House of Cards-y drama about political lobbying.

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In praise of Philippe Garrel, unsung hero of the French New Wave

By Matt Thrift

The director has been producing casual masterpieces since 1964.

The Lost City of Z

By Matt Thrift

James Gray channels Joseph Conrad in this immaculately-crafted but lacklustre epic.

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Kong to Kong: The complete screen history of cinema’s greatest monster

By Matt Thrift

We take an exhaustive look back at the ups and downs of this iconic movie simian.

Paul Verhoeven: ‘Hollywood thinks audiences are stupid’

By Matt Thrift

The outspoken Dutch filmmaker discusses his triumphant return to cinema, Elle.

John Wick: Chapter 2

By Matt Thrift

Though not as svelte as before, Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves still deliver big with this awesome action-ballet.

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Paul Schrader: ‘In the ’70s it wasn’t that the films were better, it was the audiences’

By Matt Thrift

The veteran Hollywood maverick talks Dog Eat Dog, Scorsese and the challenges of modern moviemaking.

Crazy “lost” film unearthed at the 2016 American Film Festival

By Matt Thrift

This year’s AFF ended with an eye-popping cinematic spectacle – a film unseen for 50 years.

Things to look forward to at the American Film Festival 2016

By Matt Thrift

Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson and a Wim Wenders retrospective are among the highlights of this year’s AFF.

A guide to the early films of Pedro Almodóvar

By Matt Thrift

With the Spanish maestro back in action we take a look back at his formative years.

The six best films from New Horizons International Film Festival 2016

By Matt Thrift

The Polish festival once again served up the best world cinema has to offer, including a contender for film of the year.

Why Avatar is the greatest blockbuster of the 21st century

By Matt Thrift

The true greatness of James Cameron’s record-breaking space opera is not in its conception but its execution.

Eight things to see at New Horizons International Film Festival 2016

By Matt Thrift

A David Lynch classic and Pedro Almodóvar’s favourite film are among the highlights of this year’s programme.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul: ‘Steven Spielberg turned me on to making movies’

By Matt Thrift

The Thai master from the little town of Khon Kaen on the movies and directors that inspired him.

Embrace of the Serpent

By Matt Thrift

Ciro Guerra’s psychedelic Amazonian odyssey is one of year’s most potent and strikingly original films.

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Famous directors who fell in love with Ireland

By Matt Thrift

The story of how a trio of legendary filmmakers became entranced by the Emerald Isle.

The Love Parade: Cinema’s greatest romantic gestures

By Matt Thrift

A collection of 60 unforgettable declarations of love from the movies to get you in the mood this Valentine’s Day.

In defence of Robert De Niro

By Matt Thrift

Dirty Grandpa may be an indefensible dud, but the actor’s recent output is nowhere near as bad as everyone seems to think.

Dirty Grandpa

By Matt Thrift

Robert De Niro hits an all-time low alongside Zac Efron in this insufferable road trip comedy.

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Hou Hsiao-Hsien: ‘There were a lot of gangs where I grew up’

By Matt Thrift

Meet the Taiwanese master who makes gorgeous movies and home-made Samurai swords.

In the Heart of the Sea

By Matt Thrift

There’s something majorly fishy about this high seas folk tale – and it’s not the enormous whale that shipwrecks Chris Hemsworth.

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Hard to be a God

By Matt Thrift

Alexsey German’s 15-years-in-the-making political allegory is a visceral, sensory, jaw-dropping masterpiece.

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Iris

By Matt Thrift

Albert Maysles’ penultimate film suggests that rabid consumerism can be refined and charming.

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Danny Collins

By Matt Thrift

A sappy Al Pacino vehicle reviewed via the medium of Heat's iconic coffee shop tête-à-tête.

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The Divergent Series: Insurgent

By Matt Thrift

Exposition and naff CG fight for supremacy in this YA sci-fi sequel starring a seemingly unengaged Shailene Woodley.

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Ben Mendelsohn: ‘The hardest things to act are fucking and fighting’

By Matt Thrift

The F-bombs fly in our interview with the Aussie character actor who appears in Starred Up.

Out of the Furnace

By Matt Thrift

A magnetic Christian Bale adds much-needed gravitas to this otherwise conventional blue-collar revenge saga.

review

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

By Matt Thrift

Restored, re-released and resplendent. David Lean’s 1962 historical epic is back, and better than ever.

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The Turin Horse

By Matt Thrift

Hungarian colossus Béla Tarr’s ‘last film’ is a magnificent, towering achievement.

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Little White Lies was established in 2005 as a bi-monthly print magazine committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them. Combining cutting-edge design, illustration and journalism, we’ve been described as being “at the vanguard of the independent publishing movement.” Our reviews feature a unique tripartite ranking system that captures the different aspects of the movie-going experience. We believe in Truth & Movies.

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