Having expectations is always a risk. This is the drama from Iranian director Asghar Farhadi and I loved his last two features – A Separation and The Past. He builds a great story, showing us contemporary Iranian life through the eyes of engaging and totally believable characters. Continue reading
Tag Archives: 4 stars
Under the Shadow (2016)
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I’m still thinking about this Iranian horror. It wasn’t a genre I knew about before A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night entered my life – my favourite film of last year. There are similarities between these two films, not stylistically but in their feminist subtext, although Girl delivers it much more subtly. And Under the Shadow is much more scary. I returned to my apartment afterwards and the quiet stairs and long corridors seemed disconcertingly like a carpeted version of the apartment block in the film. Continue reading
As I Open My Eyes (À peine j’ouvre les yeux) (2015)
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Farah is a young idealist, a singer fresh out of secondary school and living in Tunis with her mother while her father works away. Farah’s band sing songs of protest about the inequities and corruption of their country, songs that begin to be noticed by the authorities. The music is beautiful – a mix of contemporary and traditional, the lyrics like poetry, Farah’s keening voice a heartbreak. Slowly, we become aware of the world outside Farah’s relatively privileged, sheltered upbringing and her guilelessness begins to affect those around her. Continue reading
Green Room (2015)
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Have you ever decided to go to the cinema and just pick a film that you know nothing about? That’s what I did with Green Room, all I knew was that it was a horror (not my favourite genre), it was about a punk band and Patrick Stewart was in it. If nothing else, it was going to be interesting. And it was an engaging, if gory, ride. Continue reading
The Piano Teacher (2001)
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Holy moly, this was a cracker of a film. Not to be watched by anyone who wants an easy ride – take this as a warning. Directed by Michael Haneke, who makes challenging films like The White Ribbon and Caché, The Piano Teacher also has powerhouse performances, themes that make you decidedly uncomfortable and no neat resolution. With all of the Haneke films I have seen so far, as the end credits roll there is a moment of incredulity and exasperation but then the characters and subtext worm their way into your brain and refuse to leave. Continue reading
Rams (Hrutar) (2015)
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I want to go to Iceland. I blame Björk for sparking my interest. There is something about her discordant eccentricity, the kookiness of Icelandic names and the brutality of the landscape that makes me think this would be a country worth knowing. It’s possible that Rams is the first Icelandic film I have ever seen and it didn’t disappoint. Continue reading
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
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I’d forgotten this film from 2004. Joel (Jim Carrey) wakes to find that his girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has had all memory of him erased so that she can move on. In anger, he chooses to do the same and we follow him back through their relationship as the fragments of his memory of her disappear. Directed by Michel Gondry with inventive camerawork and very few post-production special effects, you are kept off-kilter as you navigate your way through the real and the surreal that is Joel’s mind. Continue reading
Love Actually (2003)
StandardLove Actually has become our Christmas Eve tradition. It used to be just the adults watching it while we wrapped presents and ate mince pies but this year it was the whole family (although the youngest looked away during all of the kissing bits, and there were quite a few of these). This is not a standard romantic comedy though, which stands or falls by the credibility of the main couple and their narrative, this is an ensemble piece that shows us love in its many guises. Continue reading
Shortbus (2006)
StandardIf you like Hedwig and the Angry Inch, you’re probably going to like this film. If you don’t know what Hedwig and the Angry Inch is, go and watch it as soon as you can. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but it is delightfully irreverent and full of pathos and catchy tunes. Shortbus shares the same director, John Cameron Mitchell who also stars in Hedwig but takes a back seat, so to speak, in this one. Other than the credentials of Mitchell, all I knew about Shortbus was that it contained unsimulated sex! Yowza! That was a reason to watch it when the kids were safely in bed. Continue reading
Tracks (2013)
StandardI wasn’t the only woman who, as the lights went up after our Film Society screening of this Australian film, said, “I want to do something like that!” There is much to be said about this beautiful and lyrical film but the real heart of it, at least for me, was a woman doggedly following a dream, despite the discomfort and disapprobation of all those around her. Continue reading
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