To Dance is to Resist
Director Julian Lautenbacher [shows] bravery in choosing queer identity and dance as his documentary’s expression of resistance to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Category Archives: Festival Coverage
Departures
Even if DEPARTURES leans heavily on its influences before it establishes what it wants to say, there are enough novel angles and flourishes that its bolshy Mancunian voice is clearly heard and worth listening to.
California Schemin’
CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’ has hints of greatness throughout its script but ultimately lands as a safe debut for James McAvoy that doesn’t dare to tread very far outside the formula for music biopic cinema.
The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford
THE FALL OF SIR DOUGLAS WEATHERFORD is the story of a tour guide in a small Borders town, driven mad by the intrusion of a television crew filming a prestige fantasy series, balancing a light comedy tone with unexpected poignancy, even if some of its more impactful ideas are underdeveloped.
Sukkwan Island (My Father’s Island)
SUKKWAN ISLAND (also known as MY FATHER’S ISLAND) is a slow devastation. The conclusion seems inevitable from the outset but, like the young man in the film, we are dragged along for the experience.
Effi o Blaenau
EFFI O BLAENAU is a terrific, timely picture of very modern, very preventable tragedies. That said, it is in no way tied to its era and milieu: as long as people think with hearts and not heads, and as long as we live in a world where blind chance can have the same impact as thoughtful choices, Effi will face these trials.
Rebuilding
REBUILDING is a compassionate look at a community rocked by disaster with a wonderfully judged performance by O’Connor, though unfortunately it goes no deeper. Considering these natural events will become more and more common, and stronger, as the climate crisis intensifies, the film occupies a strange place between call to action and resignation to fate.
Molly vs The Machines
Marc Silver’s documentary MOLLY VS THE MACHINES takes an incredibly heavy and emotive subject and, while paying tribute to the human tragedy that inspired it, examines the social, legal, and material conditions that engendered it. The result does not wallow in exploitation or suggest hard-and-fast ways forward, but instead exposes the safeguarding cracks and legal loopholes that have caused so much harm in online spaces.
Think of England
THINK OF ENGLAND starts by evoking the idea of indecency with a wry grin, but what it ends up producing is something more reflective.
The Last Viking
THE LAST VIKING entertainingly shifts between identities in a way that parallels its characters, but a surprisingly sensitive treatment of neurodiversity is marred by a bitter undercurrent of misogyny that leaves a bad taste.