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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
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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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My comfort food is mashed potato and gravy, which is not a bad analogy for (Full Monty (1997)) Peter Cattaneo’s choir-based feel-good movie. It’s warm and predictable with just enough flavour to keep it interesting. The beats are predictable, the ending assured, the tissues needed, but the performances of leads Sharon Horgan and Kristin Scott Thomas elevate it to something more. Continue reading
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Dark Place is an anthology of short, horror films by Australian Indigenous filmmakers and it’s an indictment of Australia that they don’t need to exaggerate reality much for it to be horror. Continue reading
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This understated and enigmatic drama by Nanako Hirose is surprisingly meditative and captivating, although occasionally frustrating and ultimately unsatisfying. Continue reading
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This is a tough film to watch. Lina Wertmüller’s caustic satire can’t help but discomfit an audience fooled by its initial comedy. Continue reading
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Documentaries like this one aren’t an easy ride. You are dropped into the middle of a cluster of stories with no context, narration nor exposition to help you understand where you are. You have to have the patience to sit back and let the stories unfurl and the characters to worm their way into your heart. Continue reading
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This is undoubtably an unusual movie. Like a genre mash up of a Scandi crime drama and a dark and dirty fairytale, Border keeps you decidedly uncomfortable from start to end. Continue reading
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Bill Nighy. Scrabble. Frank Cottrell Boyce. A winning combination as far as I’m concerned and Sometimes Always Never has the stylistically quirkiness of a Wes Anderson film but with depth and a gentle warmth. Continue reading
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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
