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Like a sweet, golden, flaky pastry served with a bitter coffee, Maryam Touzani’s Adam is full of warmth, sorrow and satisfaction. Continue reading
Adam (2019)
StandardTag Archives: 4 stars
The Lodge (2019)
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Austrian directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz have crafted a frosty and compelling suspense with horror overtones. It surpasses Hereditary (2018) with its eery themes of rural isolation and family dysfunction. Continue reading
We Are Little Zombies (Wî â Ritoru Zonbîzu) (2019)
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Told in a Wes Anderson-esque tableau style, Makoto Nagahisa’s We Are Little Zombies is a visual onslaught that frames childhood grief as a computer game, with avatars, quests, save points and perhaps even a chance of a game reset. Continue reading
Take Me Somewhere Nice (2019)
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“The hardest thing in life is letting go of those you hold dear. After that, everything is easy.” Continue reading
Little Monsters (2019)
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The Centrepiece Gala had me at ‘ukulele’ and ‘zombies’. Abe Forsyth’s zom-com doesn’t take itself too seriously and is full of laugh-out-loud dialogue and devastatingly winsome performances from Lupita Nyong’o, Alexander England and a class full of kindergarten kids. Continue reading
Papicha (2019)
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“Don’t drink standing up. Satan will see you. And with your left hand too!” Continue reading
Judy and Punch (2019)
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Except for a slight misstep in the third act, this darkly funny evisceration of violent men and mob mentality hits all the right notes (pun intended). It is a strong debut by director Mirrah Foulkes. Continue reading
Sword of Trust (2019)
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Lynn Shelton knows how to tell a good story. I loved Hump Day (2009) and Your Sister’s Sister (2011) and, like them, Sword of Trust is full of wry humour, great characters and cracking dialogue. Continue reading
Girlhood (Bande de Filles) (2014)
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I booked this one without knowing much about the film, enticed primarily by the live soundtrack by Sampa the Great and the story about being a young, poor, black French woman, with all its beauty and tragedy. Continue reading
The Souvenir (2019)
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This was not at all what I expected. My tendency is to skim over a synopsis if there are some key trigger words – in this case Tilda Swinton and Richard Ayoade. I think I was expecting something akin to the polished drawing-room drama of Sally Potter’s The Party (2017). It couldn’t have been more different. Continue reading
