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, 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.
Despite its title and the in-your-face delivery of some of its most fevered sections, DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD is not all apathy and ironic resignation. There may not be hope, as such, at its heart, but there is an unending belief in human ingenuity and creativity.
Carmen Paddock’s review of Disco Boy directed by Giacomo Abbruzzese: “While there might not be especially new ground covered in a narrative capturing the fragmenting psyches of the colonisers and the colonised […] DISCO BOY is a stunning new entry into the canon.”
The British indie film scene has always had an eye for generational talent. From Oscar-winner Chiwetel Ejiofor, who got acclaim in Stephen Frears’ indie DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, to Hollywood starlet Emily Blunt in Paweł Pawlikowski’s MY SUMMER OF LOVE, there is a recurrence of British indie films finding gems. In Sasha Nathwani’s sun-soaked tale of … Continue reading Last Swim
Ng Choon Ping and Sam Freeman spoke about their Safdie brother references in FEMME, the implications behind the giant lion tattoos embossed on George MacKay, and how vital it was to have an intimacy coordinator on set.
The title of EVIL DOES NOT EXIST initially implies a sense of virtue, an optimistic hope that the world isn’t as fatally flawed as our experience would make us believe, but Ryusuke Hamaguchi slowly and surely maps out the different layers of the local community that are a microcosm of our larger society.
FOE feels lethargic rather than slow-burn, a throwback rather than progressive and misjudged in too many key aspects, and its disservice to Ronan and Mescal is unfortunate. It’s left to the audience to determine who the foe of the title might be, but on the evidence presented, the strongest candidate would seem to be the script.
SHORTCOMINGS is a title that almost invites criticism, but this easygoing look at relationship difficulties has more strengths than weaknesses. It doesn’t default to feelgood safety, and has flawed characters that don’t undergo magic transformations.
With THE ROYAL HOTEL, Kitty Green has once again shown that she can strike a perfectly pitched tone, knowing exactly how she wants to escalate tension, whether it be from female powerlessness at the hands of predatory executives or the roaring, blistering diatribe spat from the drunk mouth of an average man.
