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I can’t get this film by Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) out of my head. I went to it with some trepidation after tales of mass walkouts at the Sydney Film Festival. Continue reading
The Nightingale (2018)
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Girlhood (Bande de Filles) (2014)
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I booked this one without knowing much about the film, enticed primarily by the live soundtrack by Sampa the Great and the story about being a young, poor, black French woman, with all its beauty and tragedy. Continue reading
The Souvenir (2019)
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This was not at all what I expected. My tendency is to skim over a synopsis if there are some key trigger words – in this case Tilda Swinton and Richard Ayoade. I think I was expecting something akin to the polished drawing-room drama of Sally Potter’s The Party (2017). It couldn’t have been more different. Continue reading
In My Blood it Runs (2019)
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I loved Maya Newell’s Gayby Baby (2015). She has a knack of removing herself from the frame and immersing us in the intimate world of family. It can seem like a commonplace tale until you slowly realise that she is personalising key social concerns, allowing us a window into the impact of prejudice, racism and institutionalised apathy. Continue reading
And Then We Danced (2019)
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Suffused with golden light and a fug of cigarette smoke, this Georgian drama pulls you in to what feels like a very real story of queer love in an oppressively heterosexual culture. Continue reading
Ghost Town Anthology (Répertoire des Villes Disparues) (2019)
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This sober and creepy tale has an inexorable pull that keeps you watching despite what seems at first to be a simple story. Continue reading
Swallow (2019)
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Like God Exists, Her Name is Petruniya, this is a stylish and absorbing tale of a sheep becoming a wolf. Continue reading
God Exists, Her Name is Petrunija (Gospod postoi, imeto i’ e Petrunija) (2019)
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I was thoroughly charmed by this quirky Macedonian tale of courage and self determination by Teona Strugar Mitevska. Continue reading
Deerskin (Le Daim) (2019)
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The perfect film to see at a midnight screening, Quentin Dupieux’s Deerskin is a wry and disturbing romp that never takes itself seriously. Continue reading
You Were Never Really Here (2018)
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Lyn Ramsey’s (We Need to Talk About Kevin, Morvern Callar) latest grips you in its sweaty fist and doesn’t let up until the final frame. It’s enigmatic, intense and artful, filling each frame with the lumbering presence of Joaquin Phoenix. Continue reading
