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I tried to keep my expectations low for this quiet and cinematic meditation on masculinity and rodeo riders. I only booked it because of recommendations from fellow MIFF tweeters and it’s often a mistake to expect too much (First Reformed (2017) is a good example of this). It took a little while to settle into the pace and the slight awkwardness of non-professional actors but once I did, I was hopelessly lost in its beauty and pathos. Continue reading
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Revisiting this gorgeous example of an era in Hollywood when women’s films gave women agency, though with limitations, was an indulgent treat. It is one of my favourite films of the time and beautifully captures how women can be contained and yet will always seek to subvert their boundaries. Continue reading
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The Tale is based on the experiences of writer director Jennifer Fox who discovered a story written by herself at age 13 that recounts her relationship with her 40-year-old running coach. Having remembered it for 30 years as a benign and normal experience, reconnecting with her words as a 13-year-old forces her to confront the reality. Continue reading
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Pawel Pawlikowski has crafted a bleak and beautiful tribute to the joys and violence of love and ideology. Continue reading
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This exquisite and heartbreaking film by Christophe Honoré felt like a more whimsical but no less real partner to last year’s BPM. The Anglicised title doesn’t do it justice, and I prefer the original that loosely translates as “pleasure, love and run fast.” Continue reading
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Sparse and visually poetic, Milko Lazarov’s Ága immerses us in the spartan life of elderly Yakut reindeer herders, Nanook (Mikhail Aprosimov) and Sedna (Feodosia Ivanova), living a harsh and contented life in the Siberian tundra. Continue reading
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I love a quirky Icelandic drama and Benedikt Erlingsson has created an engaging and tongue-in-cheek story with a mostly subtle but effective message. Continue reading
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The Bay City Rollers was my boyband obsession. Tartan scarves were banned from my primary school because we used to wear them tied to our wrists to show our devotion. My cousin called them the Bay Shitty Rollers, just to annoy me. Continue reading
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Agnieszka Smoczynska’s credentials as the director of 80s musical about killer mermaids The Lure, got me along to Fugue, her next feature. They couldn’t be more different in tone and style but both have stories that recast women out of familiar stereotypes. Continue reading
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Blending just the right amount of bleached Eastern European realness with surreal metaphor, Scary Mother is a dark and brooding tale of female autonomy. Continue reading
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