Director: Nimrod Eldar Stars: Menashe Noy, Zohar Meidan, Sarit Vino-Elad Methods of communication are at the heart of this handsome Israeli debut from filmmaker Nimrod Eldar. Yoram (Menashe Noy) is a 50-year-old veterinarian and recent widower who is having trouble relating to his teenage daughter Roni (Zohar Meidan). She disappears for days or comes home … Continue reading Review: The Day After I’m Gone
Director: Spike Lee Stars: Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Chadwick Boseman First, a little bit of business Before I get to my thoughts on the film, here are links to reviews written by Black film critics that I've found elsewhere with a quick search. Leila Latif for Little White Lies Odie Henderson for RogerEbert.com Kambole Campbell … Continue reading Review: Da 5 Bloods
Year: 1997 Director: Jim Gillespie Stars: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe There are movies that I've included in this series based on their artistic prowess, on their merit, on their phenomenal influence on the medium of film and my experience of it. And then there are other movies. I'm not a fan … Continue reading Why I Love… #117: I Know What You Did Last Summer
Year: 1969 Director: Paul Mazursky Stars: Natalie Wood, Elliott Gould, Robert Culp I've recently been listening to a lot of Talking Heads, which has nothing to do with Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. The art-pop band came into being some years after Mazursky's semi-obscure film, the two do not intersect. And yet, it has been through … Continue reading Why I Love… #116: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
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
Year: 1968 Director: Kaneto Shindô Stars: Kichiemon Nakamura, Nobuko Otowa, Kiwako Taichi For the better part of the last century, cats have had a bad run of things when it comes to horror cinema. Whether you look back to the Val Lewton produced Cat People of 1942 or the various iterations of Poe's The Black Cat that … Continue reading Why I Love… #115: Kuroneko
Year: 1955 Director: Nicholas Ray Stars: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo Uff, what more is there to say about Rebel Without A Cause? Somewhere in the recesses of my laptop is a list of prospective titles for this occasional series, and there are titles on that list that absolutely terrify me. They're the most talked … Continue reading Why I Love… #114: Rebel Without A Cause
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
Year: 1962 Director: Michelangelo Antonioni Stars: Monica Vitti, Alain Delon, Francisco Rabal At the time of writing the UK is in lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We can leave the house to work (if we're essential workers), to buy groceries or visit pharmacies, or to take a daily regiment of exercise. Go for a … Continue reading Why I Love… #113: L’Eclisse
It was doomed, in a way. Having weathered the Grand Guignol misfire of 1997's Alien Resurrection, and ran the gauntlet of the insipid (non-canon) Alien vs Predator movies of the mid-2000s, xenomorph fans needed something to believe in. Word that the Godfather of Alien himself - Ridley Scott - was returning to the series set … Continue reading What About… Prometheus
