Hot Milk
Emma Mackey is an engaging screen presence that keeps HOT MILK more or less on track in her lead role, but the lack of narrative direction leaves her character and the film to languish in the hot Spanish sun.
All posts by Jim Ross
28 Years Later
By defying a desire for simplistic metaphors and clear avatars for contemporary concerns, it’s arguable that 28 YEARS LATER allows meaning to emerge in the minds of individual viewers in more complex and unexpected ways.
Sophia Carr-Gomm on Return
Short film RETURN foregrounds the growing directorial voice of Sophia Carr-Gomm; a cinematic short with a haunting central performance, rendered all the more poignant by the passing of lead actor Peter Faulkner shortly after the film’s completion.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
With almost thirty years having passed since the first MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, the series has lasted much longer than the legendary 5-seconds-until-self-destruction. However, even if this latest spectacle delivers more than a tiny puff of smoke in an 80s tape player, it represents a fizzling out nonetheless.
The Brutalist
The film will stand the test of time, both in terms of the ideas and questions it raises, as well as a beautiful example of the moving image. However, something about THE BRUTALIST arriving now lends the film potency.
Flow
The unique approach of FLOW streams through the entire feature, from its animation style to character behaviour, in a way that deepens the impact of its themes of solidarity, companionship, and harmony.
On Falling
ON FALLING achieves the difficult credit of being both a deeply affecting character story and a compelling indictment of how precarious labour markets undermine our communities.
Nosferatu
This edition of NOSFERATU is often visually remarkable, but falters in communicating the paralysis borne of fear and desire and is content to menacingly nibble around the edges rather than sink its teeth in.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL – Rungano Nyoni’s second feature film – is a skilfully constructed balance of tone and expectations. The film finds reason in oddities, truths in ambiguities, and joy despite trauma, all underscored by a superb performance from Susan Chardy.
Rumours
Despite a messy and unfocused narrative trajectory, the depth of absurdity Guy Maddin (and co-directors Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson) offers in RUMOURS skewers the modern geopolitical scene better than most.