Cinema Roundup: April 11th

Movie of the Week: The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears

Movie of the Week: The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears

Fans of surrealist horror are in for a cinematic treat this week with the release of The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears, a stunningly beautiful and atmospheric homage to the stylistic Italian ‘Giallo’ thrillers of the seventies.

The Belgian duo of Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani burst onto the scene a few years ago with the equally surreal Amer, and their follow up has been long awaited by many. Few can pull off this sort of film-making without coming off as frauds, but this Benelux duo are the genuine article. However, if you’re the sort of viewer who insists on having every little plot detail spelled out to you then don’t waste your time with ‘TSCOYBT’. This is a movie for those who prefer to engage with cinema on an emotional and sensual, rather than intellectual, level.

Another director following up an acclaimed debut is Welshman Gareth Evans, whose The Raid 2 roars into cinemas with fists clenched. Like the first Raid movie, TR2 contains some of the most jaw dropping set pieces of recent years but this time the film gets bogged down in a dull and poorly written crime drama plot. At 2.5 hours, the film is roughly an hour of insane action wrapped in 1.5 hours of tedium.

The Last Days on Mars is the directorial debut of Irish animator Ruairi Robinson. A middle of the road slice of sci-fi, it won’t win any awards for originality but it’s a decent time passer if you’re a fan of the genre.

Also out this week is Calvary. You can read my full review in the current print edition.

By Eric Hillis