Ninety minutes was enough time with the prickly, belligerent Daphne but I couldn’t help but wish her well. #MIFF2017 Continue reading
Tag Archives: 3.5 stars
A Quiet Passion (2016)
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Very quiet. And a little bitter. This is not a bad movie but it left me feeling deflated and very happy to not be Emily Dickinson or a woman in the mid-19th century. Continue reading
Despicable Me 3 (2017)
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Gru is my favourite villain. And now there’s the breakdancing Balthazar Bratt, who comes in at number two. And number three is Gru’s twin brother Dru, who’s like a more optimistic Gru with a blonde wig. Sequels are usually something to endure but this third installment of the Despicable Me franchise was almost as good as the first and definitely more entertaining than the second. Continue reading
My Cousin Rachel (2017)
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This solid adaptation of the Daphne Du Maurier novel retains the ambiguity of the original, leaving you guessing right up until the end. Rachel Weisz is perfectly cast as the enigmatic Rachel, the calm centre around which Sam Claflin’s Philip crashes and spins. Continue reading
Act and Punishment (2015)
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“I got hurt feelings, I got hurt feelings,” so sing Jermaine and Brett, of Flight of the Conchords, and, in the case of Russian punk activists, Pussy Riot, so did the Russian Orthodox Church. Continue reading
From Nowhere (2016)
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I knew nothing about this film when I bought a ticket. Screening as part of the American Essentials Film Festival, it suited my schedule and its story about undocumented teens at a US high school trying to make a future sounded interesting. What completely surprised me was to find out, during the closing credits, that it was directed by Matthew Newton. Yes, that Matthew Newton. He’s not my favourite person but he did a remarkably good job at showing the vulnerabilities of people whose human rights are threatened. Continue reading
Mulholland Drive (2001)
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I remember being confounded by this film 15 or so years ago. The American Essentials Film Festival was a chance to revisit this David Lynch classic as part of a larger retrospective. It still stands up as a beautifully atmospheric and cleverly crafted film, both echoing and subverting traditional cinematic storytelling. Continue reading
Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare) (2016)
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This stunningly crafted documentary, ostensibly about the European refugee crisis, won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Without narration, context nor exposition other than a few paragraphs before it starts, the film juxtaposes the quiet life of the inhabitants of the island of Lampedusa with the horrific plight of those attempting to cross from Africa to Europe. Continue reading
Asphalte (Macadam Stories) (2015)
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The best thing about film societies is that they get you to see films you’ve never heard of and they’re nearly always worthwhile. For Asphalte (with a much more prosaic English title), we were outdoors on a cold Autumn night but this quirky French film about the connections we seek and cannot avoid in a faceless city kept us absorbed until the end. Continue reading
Get Out (2017)
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Touted as a horror, this is really a suspenseful thriller that keeps you guessing right up until the satisfyingly violent ending. Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) is getting ready to visit the parents of his new girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) for the first time. Dean (Bradley Whitford) and Missy (Catherine Keener), Rose assures him, will be totally cool that he is black as her Dad ‘would have voted for Obama for a third term if he could’ and they are ‘definitely not racist’. Continue reading
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