“What I wanted to do [with PASSAGES] was make a film of pleasure. I was trying to turn people on. Which doesn’t mean gratuitous or exploitative; I was trying to make a film where the beauty of bodies in different lights and colours was embraced.”
Within CORVINE’s brisk ten-minute runtime, Sean McCarron is able to translate the pain of growing up as a deviant; one not fully welcome within the will of society.
The character of Tomas, whose emotional and sexual openness reflects commitment to art and new experiences, embodies Ira Sachs’s PASSAGES – uncomfortable and challenging but exhilarating and captivating.
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.
Nicolas Giraud directs and stars in THE ASTRONAUT (L’ASTRONAUTE), a gentle and beautifully shot film with some ambitious ideas around opening up space exploration and connecting with people on Earth. Although slow, the drama of the climax makes the journey worthwhile. Simon Bowie reviews.
Sophie Linnenbaum’s debut feature THE ORDINARIES crafts a story that very nearly collapses under its own concept but manages to say something about class and emotional expression. Simon Bowie reviews.
The theme of failure has such potency for a documentary film, but THE ARTIST AND THE WALL OF DEATH ends up with a rather traditional narrative trajectory that doesn’t get to the root of the importance of failure in creativity. Simon Bowie reviews.
Carol Morley’s TYPIST ARTIST PIRATE KING is a psychogeographic tour across England through the prism of an unappreciated artist suffering with mental illness. Simon Bowie reviews.
SKIN DEEP has high ambitions but is too unfocused, and a lack of attention in navigating the finer elements of body dysmorphia squanders the film’s intriguing premise.
MISTER ORGAN is a fascinating portrait of a narcissist’s litany of power trips. Carmen Paddock reviews.
