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Category Archives: Film Review
Review in Brief: Monsoon (2019/20)
Hong Khaou’s follow-up to LILTING, another tale of love, identity and displacement, is quietly mesmerising. The cinematography of MONSOON is particularly striking, from the opening aerial shot of scuttling columns of Saigon traffic to how the camera frequently seems to … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief
Tagged David Tran, Drama, Henry Golding, Hong Khaou, Lilting, Monsoon, Parker Sawyers
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Review in Brief: Relic (2020)
RELIC is an oppressively creepy, deeply moving horror from already-distinct Australian filmmaking voice Natalie Erika James. Kay (Emily Mortimer) along with her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) goes looking for her missing dementia-suffering mother (Robyn Nevin) but when she reappears apparently … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief
Tagged Bella Heathcote, Emily Mortimer, Horror, Natalie Erika James, Relic, Robyn Nevin
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Review in Brief: Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)
The world loves telling teenage girls what to do with their own bodies – don’t wear this, don’t take that, if you end up with another life inside you then you absolutely must have it. If you were being glib … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief
Tagged Drama, Juno, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Sidney Flanigan
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Review in Brief: Impetigore (2019/20)
Even in a year chock-full of examples of distinctively-voiced horror, the Indonesian offering IMPETIGORE stands out. It’s self-aware without being glib (someone asks “who kills students?” the answer every horror fan knows, is any antagonist in a horror film), it’s … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief
Tagged Horror, Impetigore, Joko Anwar, Tara Basaro, World Cinema
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Review in Brief: My Octopus Teacher (2020)
Nature documentary makers are told never to interfere with the natural order of things, to be neutral observers only. MY OCTOPUS TEACHER is the magical story of a man with a camera forming an unlikely and unbreakable bond with another … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief
Tagged Documentary, My Octopus Teacher, Netflix
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Review in Brief: His House (2020)
HIS HOUSE tells a familiar enough haunted house story but filters it through the real experience and plight of refugees and is all the sadder and hard-hitting for that. The lead performances of Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku are raw, … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief
Tagged His House, Horror, Netflix, Remi Weekes, Sope Dirisu, Wunmi Mosaku
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Review in Brief: A White, White Day (2019)
A WHITE, WHITE DAY is a film, like its protagonist (a craggy, mesmerising Ingvar Sigurdsson), utterly consumed by grief. The imposing Icelandic landscape blurs the line between life and death, beauty and bleakness, memory and reality. Little moments of quiet … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief
Tagged A White, Drama, Ingvar Sigurdsson, White Day, World Cinema
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Review in Brief: Ainu Mosir
The Ainu are the aboriginal people of Hokkaidō, Japan’s large northern island. Following centuries of oppression, discrimination, cultural invalidation, the Ainu were officially recognised as indigenous people of Japan in 2008. AINU MOSIR (after the Ainu name for Hokkaidō) tells … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief
Tagged Ainu Mosir, Debo Akibe, Drama, Kanto Shimokura, World Cinema
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Review in Brief: Rocks (2019/20)
The wonderful ROCKS completely broke me multiple times. It is the most loving tribute to friendship and the collaborative process of filmmaking. Thanks to director Sarah Gavron’s process involving classroom-based intensive workshopping and invaluable, grounding input from the young cast, … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief
Tagged Bukky Bakray, Drama, Kosar Ali, Rocks, Sarah Gavron, We Are the Best!
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