“How lucky, to be comprehensively bereaved at birth. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”
Continue readingMothering Sunday (2021)
StandardLunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019)
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This is why I watch films. First-time director Pawo Choyning Dorji takes a simple story and transports you into the world of the inhabitants of Lunana, a remote village in the north west of Bhutan.
Continue readingThe Kitchen Brigade (La Brigade) (2022)
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If you’re feeling a bit down about your life, watch this film.
Continue readingDownton Abbey: A New Era (2022)
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A panacea for Downton fans, Downton Abbey: A New Era is as insubstantial as a cucumber sandwich with the crusts cut off.
Continue readingHow to Please a Woman (2022)
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A gentle and slightly awkward Australian comedy by Renée Webster that puts female pleasure in the centre of the story.
Continue readingA Hero (Ghahreman) (2021)
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It’s a relief to watch an Asghar Farhadi film that returns to the morally complex form of his earlier films like A Separation (2011) and The Past (2013). His dip into Hollywood with Everybody Knows (2018) was a disappointment for those who love his exploration of Iranian culture.
Continue readingA Resistance (항거:유관순 이야기) (2019)
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Cho Min-ho gives us a measured exploration of the Korean independence protests of the 20s that thoroughly engages with its focus on one women and her plight.
Continue readingEl Planeta (2021)
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This artful satire by writer/director/star Amalia Ulman almost works but I couldn’t help feeling I was missing the point.
Continue readingNever Gonna Snow Again (Sniegu juz nigdy nie bedzie) (2020)
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This beautiful and decidedly enigmatic mood piece from Malgorzata Szumowska (Mug (2018), Body (2015)) and Michal Englert confounds as much as it satisfies.
Continue readingBeginning (დასაწყისი) (2020)
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Note to self – if they liken a film to the work of Michael Haneke, you are probably not going to love it. Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili’s first feature borrows heavily from Haneke’s handbook, with extended scenes of our protagonist lying on the ground pretending to be dead or sitting in a chair.
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