Ray Yeung’s sad and beautiful drama sensitively shows the genteel oppression of family in contemporary Hong Kong.
Continue readingSuk Suk (a.k.a. Twilight’s Kiss) (2019)
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Prayer for a Lost Mitten (Prière pour une Mitaine Perdue) (2020)
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I’m not sure what I was expecting with this low-key Canadian documentary by Jean-François Lesage that uses the lost and found office at the Montreal metro as a jumping off point for a meditation on loss. From the first bleak and beautiful scene of snow falling against a night sky as a clarinet mournfully plays, you know this is going to be about more than a lost mitten.
Continue readingSongs of Repression (2020)
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A documentary about Colonia Dignidad, the German fundamentalist evangelical cult based in a Chilean rural compound and led by subsequently convicted paedophile Paul Schäfer, seems to promise shock and horror at the uncovering of the many atrocities that happened there in the 60s and 70s. Directors Marianne Hougen-Moraga and Estephan Wagner manage instead to craft a contemplative and non-didactic meditation on human nature, trauma and denial.
Continue readingRose Plays Julie (2019)
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I was expecting a somewhat easy ride from this Irish thriller starring GOT villain Aiden Gillen. Its slow and sparse storytelling occasionally faltered but it sucked me right in to its compelling and unsettling tale.
Continue readingNo Hard Feelings (Wir) (2020)
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It’s good to start a film festival on a high and this sweet, sexy, lyrical and hopeful first feature by Faraz Shariat hit just the right note.
Continue readingCloverfield (2008)
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Image via http://www.polygon.com
Who knew that I liked zombie/rampaging monster/apocalyptic movies so much? Cloverfield takes a Blair Witch approach to a story of an unnamed monster that attacks Manhattan. Continue reading
The Truth (La Vérité) (2019)
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Image via http://www.indiewire.com
Hirokazu Kore-Eda has crafted a deceptively complex story within a film that feels as airy as a soufflé. Continue reading
1917 (2019)
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Image via nowtoronto.com
I resisted seeing this Best Picture Oscar nominee because it is a war film (not my favourite genre) and promos had made it seem a bit epic and action-heavy rather than introspective. Boy was I wrong. Continue reading
Emma. (2020)
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Image via http://www.justwatch.com
Don’t forget the full stop. Emma is my least favourite of Jane Austen’s novels (other than the superlative adaptation Clueless (1995). This remake by Autumn de Wilde is nicely staged with beautiful sets, clothes and a humorous thread of caricature and it mostly surmounts the biggest challenge of the story – that the eponymous character is not very likeable. Continue reading
The Invisible Man (2020)
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Image via http://www.thechronicle.com.au
This psychological thriller compellingly portrays the reality of toxic relationships and doesn’t let up from start to end. Continue reading
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