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The chance to see Marlena Dietrich, in a tuxedo, kiss a woman was enough to get me to Morocco. I love punctuating my MIFF experience with the nostalgia of a classic and any of the 30s black-and-white dramas and melodramas are like entering a different universe. Continue reading
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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
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My film before this one, Ukrainian Donbass, was an unrelenting, grubby onslaught of caricature, corruption and violence. Following it with 100 minutes with Ryuichi Sakamoto was like a balm for the heart and soul. Continue reading
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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
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An intriguing albeit flat documentary by Irene Lusztig, Yours in Sisterhood has contemporary women reading unpublished letters sent to Ms magazine in the 1970s.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
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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
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Not as blackly comedic as I was expecting, more bleakly tragic, Malgorzata Szumowska’s Mug doesn’t hide its overt criticism of the hypocrisy of religious complacency, as shown by the narrowmindedness of the people of a rural Polish town. Continue reading
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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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Dear Paul Schrader,
I have just finished watching your latest film, First Reformed, which starts Ethan Hawke as the Reverend Ernst Toller, a man facing a personal crisis. I am wondering, did you intend this to be an ode to the ills and delights of patriarchy or did you think you were telling a universal story? Continue reading
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Pawel Pawlikowski has crafted a bleak and beautiful tribute to the joys and violence of love and ideology. Continue reading
fillums 