Oh the sweet nostalgia of the 90s! The toxic world of commercial photography, particularly if you’re a woman, and the chic of heroin-fuelled nights.
Continue readingHigh Art (1998)
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The Little Sister (2025)
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Fatima (Nadia Melliti) is an Algerian teen living in France. She loves football, hangs out with her bros at school, and spars with her older sisters as they tease her for not knowing how to cook or dress in a way that men like.
Continue readingThe Sealed Soil (Khake Sar Beh Mohr)(1977)
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One thing to try not to miss at film festivals is the rare films that don’t get any other platform for viewing. Narva Marbili’s The Sealed Soil is one of these, touted as the oldest surviving Iranian film directed by a woman.
Continue readingThe Love That Remains (2025)
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This really was a perfectly MIFF film to start the 2025 festival. Pretty, quirky, occasionally obtuse, with long narratively disconnected shots and a bit of magical realism.
Continue readingThe Legend of Ochi (2025)
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Should we hold children’s films up to the same standard as adult films? That’s what I was left asking myself after this super-saturated fable that felt like Wes Anderson meets Disney meets a Grimm’s fairy tale.
Continue readingEvil Does Not Exist (2023)
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Wicked (2024)
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You know life is tough when you’re in Melbourne for the weekend and you run out of films to see at the Cinema Nova because you’ve already seen them all.
Continue readingNosferatu (2024)
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I’ll admit upfront that I’m not a fan of the films of Robert Eggers. I didn’t mind The Witch, although I found the ending laughable which was a shame as it had a great mood, but I really hated The Northman and The Lighthouse and so when I heard that he had remade Nosferatu, I had mixed feelings.
Continue readingThe Room Next Door (2024)
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I have a patchy relationship with Pedro Almodóvar. From loving his early films, I lost my way with some of his more recent dry melodramas, like Julieta. He won me back though with Pain and Glory and so I was tentatively excited to see his latest.
Continue readingDrive-Away Dolls (2024)
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It’s a swing and a miss from Ethan Coen‘s first solo film without his brother Joel.
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