Black and white – that adds half a star to my rating. Shallow, I know, but there is something about black and white that suffuses me with pleasure. This lovely Finnish film is about a boxer, Olli Mäki, who has the potential to be world champion, a first for Finland in 1962. That beautiful black and white camera follows Olli as he trains, grapples with the publicity and pressure and falls in love with Raija. Continue reading
Tag Archives: 4.5 stars
Don’t Call Me Son (2016)
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Lovely, lovely. This Brazilian film reminded me a little of Sebastian Silva’s work (The Maid MIFF 2015). Pierre and his sister Jacqueline live with their mother, Aracy. Pierre plays in a band and behind closed doors puts on lipstick and dresses, finding connection with girls and boys alike. But then the police arrive and it seems his mother is not his mother, he was stolen as a baby and now must forge a new life with a new family. Continue reading
Behemoth (2015)
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I like to be shown rather than told and this Chinese documentary about the vast coal mines of Inner Mongolia did just that. Made up of dialogue-free footage, we are taken on an absorbing and sobering visual journey. The behemoth of the title refers to the monster of the Bible who devours mountains and, through a loose translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, we journey through the Purgatory, Hell and Paradise of China’s insatiable appetite for industrial production. Continue reading
Radio Dreams (2016)
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My favourite film of the festival so far. Not quite a 5 star but a solid 4.5. This sweet, deadpan, gorgeously rendered exploration of cultural displacement is set in an Iranian radio station in San Francisco. The band Metallica has promised to call in to jam with Afghani band Kabul Dreams; Mr Royani, the wild-haired director of programming sees it as a symbolic gesture of reconciliation in the aftermath of 9/11. Continue reading
Diamond Island (2016)
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Diamond Island is a newly developed piece of reclaimed land, separated from Phnom Penh by bridges, and the place where urban locals go for fresh air and entertainment. The construction sites of the many luxury condominiums being built also provide opportunities for work for Cambodians and this beautiful and sobering film starts with Bora leaving his rural village to find work there. Continue reading
Being 17 (Quand on a 17 ans) (2016)
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A MIFF lesson – if you’ve booked a film, give it a go. I thought of staying in bed this morning and missing My Life as a Courgette and this French coming of age drama. I’m so glad I didn’t. They were both wonderful, sad, poignant and heartwarming. Tales of the value of the friendships we make, the pain of making ourselves vulnerable and the way this opens us up to the love of others. Continue reading
My Life as a Courgette (2016)
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What a lovely antidote to the yuckiness of The Neon Demon. My Life as a Courgette is a French stop-motion animation about a little boy, Icare but Courgette to his deadbeat mother. When she dies, he is sent to an orphanage where he must contend with Simon, the resident bully. Continue reading
Thelma and Louise (1991)
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This year marks twenty five years since the release of Thelma and Louise so what better way to mark it than to watch it with my three daughters. I was twenty six when I first watched this, so that’s half my lifetime ago. I remember at the time loving it because it put women at the centre of the action, it was funny, the two stars were engaging, the cinematography was beautiful and there was a thrill in identifying with characters who didn’t do what they were told. Now, at 51, I can see that this film is even more than that. Continue reading
Manuscripts Don’t Burn (2013)
StandardEvery now and then I watch a film that packs such an emotional punch that I am left feeling devastated as the credits roll. In the past year, there have been a few – The Lobster, Dogtooth, Magical Girl, Rhino Season and The Past are some that come to mind – and last night Manuscripts Don’t Burn was added to that list. That three of these films are from Iran is not coincidental, I think. Manuscripts Don’t Burn is a riveting and unvarnished indictment of the politics of today’s Iran. Continue reading
The Chosen Ones (2015)
StandardI keep thinking about this film. Like Mediterranea, it is about a current crisis and it seems impossible that this could be happening and nothing can be done about it.
Set in Tijuana in Mexico, we see Ulises, sweet, maybe 17 years old, dating Sofia, an engaging 14 year old. They sleep together, talk, ride bikes, do all the things that teenagers in love do. Then he takes her home to meet his family and it is a picture of domestic normality, his dad is celebrating a birthday, his brother arrives with his wife and baby, his mother cuts the cake. What we don’t know, is that Ulises is part of a family that entices young women with romance, separates them from their family, and then imprisons them in brothels, forcing them into slavery. Sofia is Ulises’s first. Continue reading
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