This solid and compelling drama from Jan Komasa wraps a story about morality and choice around the limitations of class and culture in rural Poland.
Continue readingCorpus Christi (Boze Cialo)(2019)
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Servants (2020)
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For its imagery alone, this bleak and beautiful drama by Ivan Ostrochovský is worth a look, although it’s love of an exquisitely composed frame distances you from the characters.
Continue reading9to5: The Story of a Movement (2020)
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Who knew that the comedy 9 to 5 (1980) was based on an actual grassroots organisation that began in the 70s to advocate for fair work conditions for (mainly female) clerical workers?
Continue readingHustlers (2019)
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Image via http://www.kmuw.org
It’s a rare treat to see a mainstream Hollywood film where so many of the leads are women of colour. Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers takes a true story of a group of women in the late 2000s, who survive the financial crash by fleecing businessman, and turns it into a warm and vibrant story of female friendship. Continue reading
Midsommar (2019)
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Image via film.avclub.com
Like Hereditary (2018), his first feature, Ari Aster’s follow up hipster horror is sumptuous and engaging but ultimately disappointing. Continue reading
Last Christmas (2019)
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Image via http://www.empireonline.com
I went in expecting an over-sugared gingerbread house of a romantic comedy but forgot this was British and written by Emma Thompson and partner Greg Wise. It’s fun and witty and the Christmas theme is front and centre, as is the always delightful music of George Michael that weaves a spell throughout. Continue reading
Colour Out of Space (2019)
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Image via http://www.indiewire.com
Nicolas Cage, you seem to have made your way out the other side of the Hollywood leading man stereotype and into something rather delightful. Continue reading
Bombshell (2019)
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I’m sure there will be a growing number of Hollywood films made that show how the oppression of women is being acknowledged and ‘fixed’ (the trailer for Miss Behaviour (2020) looks like a particularly heavy-handed girl power movie that ticks all the boxes). Bombshell does a fair job, despite its awful title.* Continue reading
Little Women (2019)
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Image via http://www.indiewire.com
Memories of reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott are distant. I remember feisty Jo and the warm and chaotic March family, full of charity for the poor and hopes for the future. Continue reading
Honey Boy (2019)
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Image via consequenceofsound.net
This autobiographical meditation on trauma, fame and rehab, written by actor Shia LaBeouf and directed by documentarian Alma Har’el, is surprisingly gentle and engaging. Continue reading
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