Bird
Andrea Arnold’s latest film, BIRD, is a beguiling blend of British social realism and magical realism, exposing the deep yearning towards nature in a dying England left adrift at the end of the world.
All posts by Simon Bowie
Woken
WOKEN is a sci-fi thriller that packs a punch disproportionate to its small scale and short length. Despite some unfortunately clumsy tropes deployed in the third act, WOKEN still has enough twists and turns and enough contemporary relevance to be a thriller worth checking out.
Sorcery (Brujería)
Though there are resonant anti-colonial themes and an interesting perspective on witchcraft as a resistance practice, SORCERY is sluggish, with too much focus on atmosphere and not enough on character.
La Chimera
Its odd tempo and mythic resonances make LA CHIMERA feel like a half-remembered story that you first heard years ago. The film’s surprising richness will bury itself in your mind in a way that finds you stumbling across it afterwards.
The Vourdalak
While THE VOURDALAK may not entirely succeed as a film, there is something fascinating about how this early vampire story emphasises the queerness that has always been part and parcel of vampire stories in folklore.
The Burning Season
Traumatic events warp the timeline of a life: their emotional gravity pulls every other event in a life back towards them like a black hole. THE BURNING SEASON uses a non-linear structure and a focus on small character details to tell the story of a traumatic event that dominates the lives of two people and … Continue reading The Burning Season
Tummy Monster
TUMMY MONSTER, Ciaran Lyons’ directorial debut feature, is UNCUT GEMS by way of Glasgow, using its sense of confinement to build to a peak of anxiety and tense release that will stick with you long after the end.
Saltburn
SALTBURN ends up feeling like an aristocratic British estate. Superficially, it looks wonderful, but the deeper you get, the more you see the cracks and how much this symbolic edifice is crumbling away with nothing meaningful to hold it up.
Smoking Causes Coughing
SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING has thin characters, subplots that are never followed up on, and a main plot where the heroes’ actions make no difference: none of that matters because the film is so wildly absurd and entertaining.
Asteroid City
ASTEROID CITY’s lasting gift is an emotional resonance that could act as a skeleton key to Anderson’s films, even for those who’ve previously found them cold and unapproachable. Simon Bowie reviews.