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Although set in a single room, Gustav Möller’s first feature cranks up the tension with a layered and intense story. Continue reading
The Guilty (Den Skyldige) (2018)
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Capharnaüm (2018)
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This memorable feature from Nadine Labaki seems to provoke love or hate. Cast with predominantly non-actors, it is for the most part an extraordinary film that shows the awful reality of the life of Syrian children well below the poverty line in Lebanon. Continue reading
Los Silencios (2018)
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Unrolling like a gentle dream, Beatriz Seigner’s Los Silencios takes the serious subject of the displacement of Colombian refugees and tells it in a lyrical and ethereal way. Continue reading
Climax (2018)
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Climax is a drug-infused, sweaty and self-indulgent nightmare. It immerses you in a single night with a bunch of unlikable dancers as bad things happen to them. Continue reading
The Merger (2018)
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If you’re in the mood for a feelgood Aussie flick that celebrates footy, country towns and mateship then The Merger will not disappoint. Filmed in around Wagga Wagga in the fictional town of Bodgy Creek, like its second-cousin-once-removed The Castle, it tells of underdogs fighting for a fair go. Continue reading
McQueen (2018)
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There is something to be said for a film that left me wanting to go home and make clothes. Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s documentary about fashion enfant terrible Lee (Alexander) McQueen is equal parts inspiring and devastating. Continue reading
Three Faces (2018)
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Jafar Panahi is not one of my favourite Iranian directors. His self-conscious self-referential technique of centring his films around his persona as a director has always kept me at a distance from his films, although I understand the relevance given his 20-year travel and directing ban. Three Faces follows this same style but, for the first time, I felt he kept himself to the margins of the story and let the real star, Behnaz Jafari, shine. Continue reading
Jirga (2018)
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This unusual and well-meaning Australian film by Ben Gilmour follows an ex-soldier as he attempts to contact the widow and children of a civilian he killed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, whilst on deployment. Continue reading
Good Manners (As Boas Maneiras) (2017)
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This is a strange film. It changes mood, pace and genre several times, beginning as a straightforward drama then veering into romance then horror then fantasy then fairytale, with the occasional musical number thrown in. Continue reading
The King (2017)
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This masterful and emotionally-engaging documentary begins as a journey through the key places and moments in the life of Elvis Presley, from Tupelo to Memphis, Nashville, New York and finally Las Vegas. Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki drives around in Elvis’s Rolls-Royce and passengers join him, some telling stories of being Elvis’s friend, neighbour or fellow churchgoer, some famous faces talking about celebrity and politics, others just playing a tune. Continue reading
