Can a documentary be too quirkily perfect? This might be a good example of one, where, after thoroughly enjoying every perfectly framed moment and oddball character, I began to wonder if the whole thing was constructed like a Christopher Guest mockumentary.
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One thing to try not to miss at film festivals is the rare films that don’t get any other platform for viewing. Narva Marbili’s The Sealed Soil is one of these, touted as the oldest surviving Iranian film directed by a woman.
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This really was a perfectly MIFF film to start the 2025 festival. Pretty, quirky, occasionally obtuse, with long narratively disconnected shots and a bit of magical realism.
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You know life is tough when you’re in Melbourne for the weekend and you run out of films to see at the Cinema Nova because you’ve already seen them all.
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I am grieving a little bit for my 24-year-old self. Paris, Texas was the movie for me in the 80s. I was living in London with a lot of time on my hands and not that big a social circle. I discovered arthouse cinemas in Soho and Brixton and would go on my own to see these weird and wonderful films.
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I think it says a lot that a film like this can be made about someone who is now the sitting president of the United States of America.
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A ad for an anniversary screening of Wim Wenders’ Paris Texas played before the session of his latest film Perfect Days. I lived in London for a few years in my early 20s and it’s where I discovered non-mainstream films. I would go to art house cinemas, particularly one in Soho, and watch films on my own. This is where I discovered films like Paris Texas, Diva, Betty Blue, Down by Law, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing and The Kiss of the Spiderwoman. I fell in love with cinema.
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Mohammad Rasoulof keeps his political critique subtle in this early drama set almost completely on a rusting hulk of an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf.
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Director Alice Troughton has a TV pedigree; she directed two of my favourite Doctor Who episodes – The Doctor’s Daughter and the iconic Midnight.
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Emerald Fennell gives us Brideshead Revisited and The Talented Mr. Ripley dragged screaming into a fantastical modern world where desire perverts everything.
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