Destined to confound, this sometimes surreal drama (with a touch of horror) sits in an uncomfortable space between metaphor and realism.
Continue readingTommy Guns (Nação Valente) (2023)
StandardThe Carnival (2023)
Standard
Isabel Darling’s The Carnival reminded me of a particular ilk of great Australian documentary storytelling, like Maya Newell’s Gayby Baby (2015) and In My Blood it Runs (2019) and Justine Moyle’s Tall Poppy (2021). The storytellers find a subject or a family who seem absolutely ordinary and build a rapport that allows them to tell the story of how they are extraordinary.
Continue readingRoom 999 (Chambre 999) (2023)
Standard
A room full of filmmakers with remarkably little insight into the world outside of their bubble.
Continue readingPast Lives (2023)
Standard
Celine Song’s debut feature is a quiet and lyrical ode to inyeon, the Korean term for “the miracle of being in the same room together at the same time.”
Continue readingFairyland (2023)
Standard
I want to say nice things about Andrew Durham’s Fairyland because it gives us an overview of queer culture in San Francisco in the 70s to 90s, a pivotal time.
Continue readingFremont (2023)
Standard
I loved Babak Jalali’s Radio Dreams (2016), and he doesn’t disappoint with the tonally very different but just as meticulous Fremont.
Continue readingShayda (2023)
Standard
On the surface, this is a story of a woman trying to leave an abusive marriage, but it shines a light on the insidiousness of domestic violence and its roots in patriarchy.
Continue readingIt Lives Inside (2023)
Standard
A guaranteed strategy to stay awake through your third film of the day, is to make sure it’s a horror.
Continue readingAnatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d’une Chute) (2023)
Standard
Lesson one: don’t watch a 2 1/2 hour slow French film at 9:30 pm at night at the Comedy Theatre.
Continue readingBiosphere (2022)
Standard
That an IMDb user gave this one star and called it “an LGBTQ+ movie disguised as a sci-fi” makes me like it even more.
Continue reading
