Anne at 13,000 ft – Review Rhys Handley September 29, 2021 Reviews This film was previously reviewed as part of our coverage for Berlinale 2020. Daycare assistant Anne has fallen, literally, in love. In the opening moments of Canadian director Kazik Radwanski’s sublime...
Around the Sun – Review Calum Baker August 14, 2020 Reviews Arriving at a Normandy chateau, Englishman Bernard (Gethin Anthony) seems lost and pensive. His partner is pregnant, and this is clearly no good thing. He exits his car and immediately finds himself...
Blood on Her Name – Review Calum Baker March 1, 2020 Reviews Lee (Bethany Anne Lind) has killed a man in her auto shop. With next to no clear context, we watch her wrap the body in plastic, bundle him into his own car, and drive to a local lake. She tosses the weapon...
What Should We Make of The Farewell’s Ending? Calum Baker October 3, 2019 Analysis, Close-Up, Features, One Off The Farewell, written and directed by Lulu Wang, is fast being slotted into one of film culture’s more interesting reductive categories: the heartfelt indie that makes everyone cry. The very premise primes...
Marwencol Never Needed a Remake Calum Baker January 5, 2019 Analysis, Features, Spotlight Jeff Malmberg’s 2010 film Marwencol should be far more available than it is. The DVD is strangely hard to come by, at least in the UK, while digital copies can be rented or purchased from iTunes, but not...
Rushmore and How the Teen Movie Grew Up Rhys Handley October 8, 2018 Features, Love Letter, Nostalgia Rushmore is 20 years old. Even with a two-decade legacy that reaches into cinema’s hallowed history to map out its future, Wes Anderson’s singular screwball tale of love, betrayal and extracurricular...
Scene Stealers: Ann Dowd in Garden State James Andrews September 5, 2018 Analysis, Features, Scene Stealers If you've only got to know Ann Dowd through her recent roles in Hereditary and TV's The Handmaid's Tale (like a certain writer, ahem), you'd be forgiven for wanting to steer well clear of her if you ever met...
Short of the Week – SALA: A Short Odyssey Henry Gatrell October 16, 2017 Independent, Short of the Week https://vimeo.com/231635275 The latter years of teen life are all challenge, identity crisis, uncertainty; frustration and dissatisfaction plague almost everyone. But for others it’s harder –...
Kelly Reichardt’s Uncertain Roads Calum Baker March 3, 2017 Analysis, Close-Up, Features Vignettes are nothing new in independent cinema. One of America's unsung treasures, Kelly Reichardt, recently made her own contribution to the subgenre with Certain Women, a film composed of three...
The Second Mother – Review Sian Brett September 7, 2015 Reviews In a perfect mix of pathos and comedy, The Second Mother brings light to something key to society: class divide. Regina Casé is a joy to watch as Val, who fosters the unshakable belief that she is a...
Comet – Review Stephen O'Nion July 6, 2015 Reviews Justin Long is normally pretty likeable; he’s got that engaging voice and an endearingly rubber face. Unfortunately the first thirty minutes of Comet call for it to be rearranged. What sounds like a...
Results – Review Cameron Ward May 29, 2015 Reviews Director Andrew Bujalski gets away from the pointless, meandering angst of his usual 20-something subjects, and moves right on with Results to those 40-somethings that kind of have it figured out, but not...
War Book – LFF Review Tom Bond October 14, 2014 Reviews 1 Comment You face a decision. You will kill millions. Or, you will watch the world burn around you. Sick to your guts you feel the cold dread of a desperately uncertain future. It’s time to decide. The premise...
Listen Up Philip – LFF Review Tom Bond October 9, 2014 Reviews Philip (Schwartzman) is the man you'll love to hate. Ike (Pryce) is the man he could become. They are both tortured, selfish literary geniuses and Moss, Ritter and de La Baume are the women who suffer for...
Making It Big: Somewhere The King David Brake April 16, 2014 Features, Independent, Making It Big 1 Comment Students, eh? A mass band of mad, crazy, drink riddled folk acting as a burden to society, right? Well, there are a few who buck the trend. Although we can't comment on the filmmaker's relation with madness...