Author Carmen Paddock

The story behind Xiang Ji’s feature film debut – involving lies to Chinese governmental censors, an eighteen-day shoot, and time in the editing suite days after giving birth – is almost as fascinating as...

In this new series of articles, our writers are watching classic films for the first time. We begin with Carmen catching up on Mary Harron's American Psycho. Mary Harron’s brutal satire of corporate...

This film was previously reviewed as part of our Glasgow Film Festival coverage in March 2020. As the truth becomes a more and more contentious issue in contemporary media, The Truth feels a throwback to a...

The intersection of identities, oppressions, and politics run through Romas Zabarauskas’ latest feature, which follows a Lithuanian corporate lawyer as he finds himself at personal and professional limits...

Philippa Lowthorpe’s latest feature immediately roots itself in its historical moment: before its opening title Misbehaviour has cut between divorced London mother interviewing for a spot at university, a...

This film was previously reviewed as part of our London Film Festival coverage in October 2019. Nick Rowland’s feature debut, based on a short story, starts with explosive, explicit violence that...

Melina León weaves events and references from throughout Peru’s tumultuous 1980s into a feature debut that hauntingly renders the era’s political and economic anxieties through an intensely personal lens....

Very little happens over the course of Blanco en Blanco (White on White), and yet each series of vignettes feels thematically tied to the vicious landscape and culture of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago at...

A homespun quality is immediately noted in One Taxi Ride. Mac CK’s documentary frames a meandering introduction to Erick, a 27-year-old man living in Mexico City, through a far from polished presentation:...

Films inspired by true events are often expected to be somewhat inspirational, dramatising a true tale of triumph against the odds for audience entertainment. To its credit, Mounia Meddour’s film is a...

Talking heads bio-docs are no new invention, yet Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am becomes something special through the enthusiasm, wit, and warmth of all involved. A clear sense of love for the literary legend...

The less known about The Death of Dick Long in advance, the better. While spoilers should not make or break a good story – and this is such a film – the first half of the film plays much differently if you...

The title of Nanni Moretti’s documentary is deliberately unplaceable, evoking a world displaced. After Salvador Allende became the first ever Marxist socialist to be elected in a liberal democracy, the...

Glasgow Film Festival tends to slip under the radar: it comes immediately after the Berlinale, often coincides with or follows the Oscars, and tends to host mainly UK and Scottish premieres of films that have...

The opening scene of Todd Haynes’ latest feature immediately evokes Jaws, as a group of giggling, beer-fueled teenagers trespass for a midnight swim. The killer in the water, however, is not quite as easy to...