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Director Pooya Badkoobeh’s first feature is an absorbing coming-of-age story about a complacent teenager who, like a fine dressage horse, has been protected from the realities of life. Continue reading
Dressage (2018)
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Sofia (2018)
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It is the unflinchingly scrutiny of the doleful Sofia’s face that made this film for me. Behind that impassive mask, that became animated only at certain moments, I could see the naivete that had brought Sofia to this untenable point in her life. Continue reading
Our House (Watashitachi no ie) (2017)
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Director Yui Kiyohara’s debut feature, Our House, has a quite restraint that adds a lyrical quality to its abstruse narrative. Continue reading
The Women (1939)
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Revisiting this gorgeous example of an era in Hollywood when women’s films gave women agency, though with limitations, was an indulgent treat. It is one of my favourite films of the time and beautifully captures how women can be contained and yet will always seek to subvert their boundaries. Continue reading
The Tale (2018)
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The Tale is based on the experiences of writer director Jennifer Fox who discovered a story written by herself at age 13 that recounts her relationship with her 40-year-old running coach. Having remembered it for 30 years as a benign and normal experience, reconnecting with her words as a 13-year-old forces her to confront the reality. Continue reading
Tower. A Bright Day (2018)
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I have no idea what this film is about. If there were signs of a meaning, I missed them and felt confounded as the credits rolled. Continue reading
A Woman Captured (2017)
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You know that the story of a woman being kept essentially as a slave in contemporary Hungary is going to be hard-hitting. Filmmaker Bernadett Tuza-Ritter does an outstanding job of inserting us right into the exhausting day-to-day existence of Marish. Continue reading
Yours in Sisterhood (2018)
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An intriguing albeit flat documentary by Irene Lusztig, Yours in Sisterhood has contemporary women reading unpublished letters sent to Ms magazine in the 1970s. Continue reading
Pig (2018)
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There seems to be a thing where Iranian directors make films about Iranian directors. Jafar Panahi likes to do it with his documentary-like musings starring himself, such as Tehran Taxi. Mani Haghighi takes a shot at it with Pig although his tongue is firmly lodged in his cheek. Continue reading
Thoroughbreds (2017)
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Slick, dark and thoroughly watchable, Thoroughbreds is an accomplished first feature from Corey Finley about privilege and morality. Touted as American Psycho meets Heathers, it has an affinity with both in its exploration of the heartless self absorption that can come with wealth and entitlement. Continue reading
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