Liquor Store Dreams – London Film Festival 2022 Review Carmen Paddock October 20, 2022 Reviews Liquor Store Dreams is the rare family-focused documentary that could be longer; compressing two family histories - not to mention a sociological, geopolitical history of South Central Los Angeles - into...
Till – LFF 2022 Review Carmen Paddock October 20, 2022 Reviews Chinonye Chukwu’s sophomore feature is dogged by the same questions facing historical dramas: why dramatise a known story, and why tell it now? Till faces a heightened hurdle by recounting the circumstances...
Geographies of Solitude – LFF 2022 Review Carmen Paddock October 20, 2022 Reviews Not many people thrive in almost-constant isolation, but Zoe Lucas has been captivated by the ecology of Sable Island, off the Nova Scotia coast, since her youth. She is now its only full-time inhabitant and...
Flee – Review Carmen Paddock February 11, 2022 Reviews This film was previously reviewed in October 2021 as part of our London Film Festival coverage. There may be rest now - Amin is an accomplished academic, living with his partner Kasper in Copenhagen,...
Belfast – Review Anna McKibbin January 21, 2022 Reviews This film was previously reviewed in October 2021 as part of London Film Festival. The glinting silver off the Titanic Quarters, the sweeping green of Cave Hill, the bouncing yellow of the Harland &...
Memoria – LFF 2021 Review Carmen Paddock October 17, 2021 Reviews Expat florist Jessica wakes to the sudden sound of a mysterious boom. She hears it again walking down the streets of Bogotá, and again having a short rest after visiting her sister Karen in hospital - a...
Never Gonna Snow Again – Review Alex Goldstein October 16, 2021 Reviews This film was previously reviewed in October 2020 as part of our LFF coverage. For a comedy-drama that hovers between life and death, Never Gonna Snow Again is achingly beautiful. Szumowska and Engerlt...
Queen of Glory – LFF 2021 Review Carmen Paddock October 14, 2021 Reviews PhD candidate Sarah (Mensah) sees her young adult life opening up before her. She’s successful in academia - a place she has forged her own path away from her Ghanian, and very Christian, immigrant family....
The Odd-Job Men – LFF 2021 Review Carmen Paddock October 13, 2021 Reviews Absurdity and verisimilitude underpin Neus Ballús’ slice of life comedy following three repairmen on a week of assignments across Barcelona. These run the gamut from mundane to just strange enough to be...
Mass – LFF 2021 Review Carmen Paddock October 13, 2021 Reviews As soon as Richard and Linda arrive at a small middle American church, it is painfully obvious that neither they nor the couple they are meeting (Jay and Gail, who have circled the block a few times) will find...
All My Friends Hate Me – LFF 2021 Review Anna McKibbin October 11, 2021 Reviews Dedicated to trapping the audience in the inexhaustible cycle of anxiety, the aptly titled All My Friends Hate Me allows terror and comedy to unspool simultaneously, both leaving the audience at a distance and...
The Alleys – LFF 2021 Review Carmen Paddock October 9, 2021 Reviews Ali is a small-time hustler, earning commission every time he brings a big spender to a nightclub, and Lana is the daughter of the most respected stylist - and single mother - in east Amman. But this modern...
The Harder They Fall – LFF 2021 Review Carmen Paddock October 9, 2021 Reviews A cursory google reveals that the real Nat Love (Jonathan Majors) and Rufus Buck (Idris Elba) were very different figures than those who make hyper-dramatic first impressions in Jeymes Samuel’s...
Herself – Review Anna McKibbin September 10, 2021 Reviews This film was previously reviewed in October 2020 as part of our London Film Festival coverage. Phyllida Lloyd’s Herself is a heartfelt tear-jerker that manages to reckon with the violence of a system...
Wildfire – Review Louise Burrell September 2, 2021 Reviews This film was previously reviewed in October 2020 as part of our London Film Festival coverage. Wildfire bursts onto the screen with Kelly (the late Nika McGuigan) returning home a year after being reported...