Waru

Waru is a film which I tried to get to see at TIFF in 2017, but it was sold out. It doesn't seem to have been released outside of festivals. It's been on my watchlist but 'unavailable' on Amazon Prime for almost a year. I wondered if I would ever get to see it. And …

Roma

I find it very difficult to comment too much in-depth on films like this, films which are so essentially personal to the film maker. And although many films to a certain extent will be personal, Roma - like Martin Scorsese's Silence - is so deliberately and deeply rooted in the experiences of the writer/director/cinematographer Alfonso Cuarón …

Aquaman

Oh my lord this is all kinds of crazy! Way too long crazy, who are all these people crazy and ... an octopus playing drums crazy? Yes, all of the above. But also, it's fun, thank goodness. It's not brilliant by any means, and there is one villain too many - presumably to set up …

L’amant double

Exactly one year ago, I was in Paris (to watch tennis) and tempted to go see L'amant double which had just opened in cinemas there, barely a couple of weeks after being screened at Cannes. In the end I didn't get time to go, but the fact that we've just had Cannes, and that tennis …

Sandome no satsujin – The Third Murder

Director Kore-eda Hirokazu's more recent films have been family focused (After the Storm, Like Father Like Son, Our Little Sister) exploring broken relationships and human frailty. With The Third Murder however, Kore-eda has returned to much larger questions of life's purpose and what it means to be a human being, in the vein of Air …

Sweet Country

Drawing on themes and images familiar from American Westerns, director Warwick Thornton’s story of a lawman looking for a killer is nevertheless a very Australian story. Set in the 1920s, when the land was settled by ‘white fellas’ who claimed it by the mere fact of being there, and effectively indentured the indigenous people of …

You Were Never Really Here

There's an awful lot packed into these 85 minutes, and they're all pretty intense. Joaquin Phoenix is not averse to taking on an enigmatic role, and this fits the bill. Enigmatic in that he says little and with no exposition, the audience is left to work out what's happening by simply following the action and …

Gholam

Photographer turned writer/director Mitra Tabrizian brings an enigmatic character to the screen and provides a window to a life probably unseen and unconsidered by most cinema audiences. Acclaimed Iranian actor Shahab Hosseini (The Salesman, A Separation) plays the titular role of Gholam, an Iranian taxi driver living in London, working two jobs and living in …

Les endroits imaginaires

A slightly less successful location scout than previous times, but one that I had been waiting to do for a while. If you've mooched around the menu of this blog, or if you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that I'm a fan of Québecois director Xavier Dolan, and as I was heading for Montréal …

Una Mujer Fantástica – A Fantastic Woman

The word is dignity. Daniela Vega imbues Marina with such dignity, and it makes beautiful viewing. It’s a stunning, delicate performance which deserves all the plaudits it is receiving. The film is rooted in the truth of Marina’s situation, the resilience she finds to deal with her travails and the choices she makes as to …