Tag Archives: Drama
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Review in Brief: Lucy in the Sky (2019)
Questioning truth and the nature of reality is one of Noah Hawley’s favourite things to do. In FARGO it’s the weekly repeated introduction taken from the Coen Brothers film that “This is a true story”. In LUCY IN THE SKY … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Following the bold BLACKKKLANSMAN, DA 5 BLOODS is again Spike Lee on fine form, with plenty to say. I loved the choice to not de-age the leads for the flashbacks, that in looking back it’s s them as they are … Continue reading
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