Director: Ena Sendijarević Stars: Sara Luna Zoric, Lazar Dragojevic, Ernad Prnjavorac Another week, another COVID-19-tainted home viewing experience. In this case the film's very name. Take Me Somewhere Nice. That sounds pretty good right now. The simple things we took for granted. Travelling. Company. A casual life. For me the title also echoes fondly with … Continue reading Review: Take Me Somewhere Nice
Director: Pedro Costa Stars: Vitalina Varela, Ventura, Manuel Tavares Almeida A new Pedro Costa film invites excitement and intimidation in those fond of world cinema and the art-house. His work can appear impenetrable, linked as it so often is with a very particular and specific cultural identity; that of Portugal's black community and its storied … Continue reading Review: Vitalina Varela
Director: Alice Wu Stars: Leah Lewis, Alexxis Lemire, Daniel Diemer Alice Wu understands the rules of both the romantic comedy and the youth movie. Combining both in The Half Of It, she has researched and employed the most enduring trope and source of dramatic tension that these genres lean on; The Lie. Ellie Chu (Leah … Continue reading Review: The Half of It
Director: Pablo Larraín Stars: Mariana Di Girolamo, Gael García Bernal, Santiago Cabrera Pablo Larraín's most well-known features of the last decade have all delved into the past and into politics, be that through the lens of activism (2012's No) or personal trauma (2016's Jackie). Now, the Chilean returns to the present for this fierce portrait of … Continue reading Review: Ema
Director: Kitty Green Stars: Julia Garner, Matthew Macfayden, Makenzie Leigh Part of my lockdown pattern so far has involved rewatching AMC's prestige TV show Mad Men. Set in the '60s, the series revels in the regressive attitudes to women prevalent at the time in Manhattan office spaces, asking us to be shocked at the behaviour … Continue reading Review: The Assistant
Director: Greg Barker Stars: Ana de Armas, Wagner Moura, Garret Dillahunt Another week in lockdown, another Netflix Original. Credit to the global streaming giant; for the moment they're still able to dutifully trickle out content for the bored and terrifyied masses. Among this week's new crumbs for the pecking at is Greg Barker's political biopic … Continue reading Review: Sergio (2020)
Director: Nora Fingscheidt Stars: Helena Zengel, Albrecht Schuch, Gabriela Maria Schmeide With her ubiquitous bright pink puffer jacket, nine-year-old tearaway Benni (Helena Zengel) certainly stands out from whatever landscape she happens to be terrorising. Thanks to some extreme behavioural disorders, she lives a chaotic existence of constantly shifting parameters. Her mother, Bianca (Lisa Hagmeister), seems … Continue reading Review: System Crasher
Director: Eliza Hittman Stars: Sidney Flanigan, Talia Ryder, Théodore Pellerin Eliza Hittman's second feature Beach Rats was one of my favourite films of the last decade, though I never wrote about it here on The Lost Highway Hotel. Nevertheless, her sympathetic focus on American youth and her keen observational eye meant that whatever came next would … Continue reading Review: Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Director: Johannes Roberts Stars: Sophie Nélisse, Corinne Foxx, Brianne Tju A couple of years ago horror filmmaker Johannes Roberts took the po-faced brio of Bryan Bertino's The Strangers and reconstituted it into the giddily enjoyable slasher throwback The Strangers: Prey at Night. Based on that gorgeous and bloody 90 minutes of nonsense, I'll happily follow him … Continue reading Review: 47 Meters Down Uncaged
Director: Lorcan Finnegan Stars: Imogen Poots, Jessie Eisenberg, Eanna Hardwicke Vivarium might appear shrewdly, even cruelly timed; arriving on streaming platforms in the midst of a pandemic that has restricted whole nations to their homes. For here we have an elusive and intriguing domestic nightmare about a young couple trapped at home... seemingly forever. However, … Continue reading Review: Vivarium
Director: Hirokazu Kore-Eda Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke Perhaps its fitting that Hirokazu Kore-Eda's first film outside of Japan should concern artifice and the cinema itself. Following his Palme d'Or win in 2018 with Shoplifters, Kore-Eda relocates to France, and presents us a fractured family that is intrinsically connected to the movie business. Spinning … Continue reading Review: The Truth
Director: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia Stars: Ivan Massagué, Zorion Eguileor, Antonia San Juan For the last two weeks here in the UK, maybe longer, we've been inundated with images of our supermarkets being ransacked as panic-buyers empty shelves in preparation for the End Times. The country is edging closer to lockdown as cases of COVID-19 continue to … Continue reading Review: The Platform
Directors: Kleber Mendonça Filho, Juliano Dornelles Stars: Bárbara Colen, Thomas Aquino, Udo Kier Both Kleber Mendonça Filho's prior films - 2012's Neighbouring Sounds and 2016's Aquarius - depicted Brazilian communities under pressure from external sources. They were subtly balanced portraits of micro-climates in touching distance from humdrum reality. Neither of these works may properly prepare you for his … Continue reading Review: Bacurau
Director: Peter Segal Stars: Dave Bautista, Parisa Fitz-Henley, Kristen Schaal For about five minutes last year it looked like we were going to have The Summer of Dave Bautista. Following the box office conquering Avengers: Endgame, two trailers landed for broadly appealing comedies starring everyone's favourite Guardian of the Galaxy. Stuber promised buddy action thrills, while My Spy … Continue reading Review: My Spy
Director: Craig Zobel Stars: Betty Gilpin, Ethan Suplee, Emma Roberts George Orwell's most famous works of fiction followed grim dystopian ideas through to their horrible, logical conclusions. In the process of putting these nightmares to paper, one wonders if Orwell didn't give a few people some ideas along the way. It's a notion that is … Continue reading Review: The Hunt (2020)
