Steph Brown reviews Fred Baillif’s THE FAM (LA MIF), an emotionally charged drama diving into the turbulent world of a residential home for girls. Baillif’s past experience in social care, and the use of a non-professional cast who channel their own experiences and vulnerabilities adds empathy and authenticity to the stories on screen.
Perry Blackshear’s WHEN I CONSUME YOU leads its viewership down a winding tunnel of despair and depravity – making the horrors bubbling under the surface expected but still unrelentingly devastating.
THE LAST THING MARY SAW is an eerie feature, with a brooding ambience and a fresh approach to the period horror genre. While there are areas of the writing that do not have as much to offer as many horror enthusiasts will expect, there are more elements that work exceptionally well than ones that do not.
Amando de Ossorio’s TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD is a stylistic nightmare-scape with enough grindhouse elements to balance out the zaniness of Ossorio’s script. An enjoyable and interesting horror movie, it may have more influence on the trends to follow in horror cinema than its chucklesome B-movie qualities would suggest.
Magnus von Horn’s SWEAT fuses the age-old story arc of the battle between success and loneliness in a modern setting that resonates in the digital age. Horn, above all, paints the 4G world on a three-dimensional canvas, allowing human nature to take the spotlight in a setting that is often illuminated to promote the shallowness of humanity.
JUMP, DARLING is a moving feature that resounds the magnetic writing of independent cinema and puts the complexity and beauty of human relationships in the centre of its discourse of LGBTIQ+ life.
Bryan Fogel’s new documentary feature, THE DISSIDENT, dives into the timeline of Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination, looking behind the curtain at the political powers at play in Saudi Arabia. Much like Fogel’s Oscar-winning documentary ICARUS, he goes to dangerous levels to expose the political grit under the surface.
While some areas of THE MAURITANIAN are slightly rough around the edges, it is more than certainly a film of merit; as an informed, thought-provoking and emotionally charged piece of cinema.
Jasmila Zbanic’s heart-wrenching feature swirls through moments of reflective anguish and ruminating cynicism, with the perfect formula to remember, condemn and question the forces that lead to the infamous events of the Bosnian genocide.
There will be much debate as to what this film is – if it is a film at all. But what can be deduced from the experience is that utopia is far from our grasp, and our understanding of what utopia is, is far from universal. Steph Brown reviews.
