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Tag Archives: Drama
Review in Brief: Babyteeth (2019/20)
With a premise that could have either been maudlin or saccharine (teenager with cancer falls for a bad boy) BABYTEETH instead ends up being bittersweet, often joyous and lyrical. This is musical filmmaking without actually being a musical with its … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief
Tagged Babyteeth, Ben Mendelssohn, Drama, Eliza Scanlen, Essie Davis, Shannon Murphy
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Review in Brief: The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
Aaron Sorkin’s greatest strengths as a writer and a filmmaker are also his greatest weaknesses, but he’s probably the kind of idealistic voice the world needs right now. This is never truer than in watching THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief
Tagged Aaron Sorkin, Drama, Mark Rylance, Netflix, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
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Review in Brief: Mangrove (2020)
MANGROVE, Steve McQueen’s furious opening salvo in his SMALL AXE film anthology is powerful, poignant and essential Black British storytelling. The film remembers the Mangrove Nine and their very public 55 day trial for supposedly inciting a riot by protesting … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief
Tagged Drama, Malachi Kirby, Mangrove, Shaun Parkes, Small Axe, Steve McQueen
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Review in Brief: Eternal Beauty (2019/20)
I always love films that look unflinchingly at mental illness but are also brave enough not to perpetuate the fallacy that someone with a mental health problems automatically becomes a saint. In Craig Roberts’ second complex directorial feature, Jane (a … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief
Tagged Alice Lowe, Billy Piper, Craig Roberts, David Thewlis, Drama, Eternal Beauty, Penelope Wilton, Robert Pugh, Sally Hawkins
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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: 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: 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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Review in Brief: Swallow (2019/20)
In SWALLOW, Hunter (Haley Bennett, terrific) is trapped in a miserable marriage and pregnancy to a rich asshole. The only excitement in Hunter’s day, the only control she can exert on her monotonous life is which objects she puts into … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief
Tagged Carlo Mirabella-Davis, Drama, Haley Bennett, Swallow
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