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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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A recent Kelly Reichardt retrospective gave me the chance to catch two of her earlier films – Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy. I really loved Certain Women at MIFF last year (I recommend you try and see it) and the same delicate, languid style can be seen in her two films from ten years ago. Wendy (Michelle Williams) is travelling across country with her dog Lucy in an old car, heading for Alaska. She has heard that work is easy to get there and she sleeps in her car and counts her pennies to make them last until she gets there. Continue reading
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In her films, Kelly Reichardt (Certain Women, Meek’s Cutoff, Wendy and Lucy) immerses you in the life of a handful of people over a day or two. In Certain Women, it was four women in rural America, in Meek’s Cutoff it was settler women in the 1840s Oregon desert. In Old Joy we follow old friends Kurt (Will Oldham) and Mark (Daniel London) as they reunite for an overnight camping trip in search of some hot springs. Continue reading
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It is Poland in 1945 and, at an isolated convent, a novice escapes and treks across country in the snow to find a doctor. A Red Cross nurse, Mathilde (Lou de Laâge), follows reluctantly and finds a nun in labour. As she stays and then returns to help, she discovers that the sisters hold a secret that has left none of them unscathed and will, in turn, profoundly affect Mathilde. Continue reading
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