Charlotte Wells’ feature debut showcases the assured hand she had already demonstrated in her short film work and enhances it further to balance tone and pace throughout a touching story of a daughter and her troubled father on holiday. Calum (Paul Mescal) takes his 11-year-old daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) on a package holiday to Turkey, … Continue reading Aftersun→
MY SMALL LAND should launch two stellar careers with its astute portrait – told in three languages – of a specific situation that feels transferable in this age of global anxiety and xenophobia.
AFTER YANG is a film steeped in humanity despite its gently dystopian subject: an android sibling of an adopted child. Koganada’s feature includes many thought-provoking strands focused on family privacy, technological dependence, and what makes someone – or something – belong to a family unit. Still, its imagination and sincerity when dealing with memory and … Continue reading After Yang→
HOLY SPIDER is a radical rage-filled polemic on a culture that Ali Abbasi believes fuelled and then excused a serial killer who slaughtered sixteen prostitutes in the Iranian sacred city of Mashhad.
A grimy lo-fi celebration of the outsider, FUNNY PAGES sees first-time feature filmmaker Owen Kline draw comic influence from cult indie favourites AMERICAN SPLENDOR and GHOST WORLD.
Writer and director Alexandru Belc’s feature debut is a slow, repetitive, but contemplative film. Despite being pitched as a love story, the film doesn’t fall into the stereotypical young love tropes; if anything, a romance is far from what the film aims to show. Starring Mara Bugarin as Ana, Belc’s film relates a narrative set … Continue reading Metronom→
From complex relationships to sudden death, LES AMANDIERS grows into an honest and compassionate coming of age narrative, showing the dwindling naivety beyond youth.
Mark Jenkin’s eagerly awaited feature-length follow-up to critically acclaimed debut BAIT swaps out his previous effort’s black and white 16mm film for a more colourful aesthetic to unsettle and isolate its audience.
April McIntyre reviews WILDHOOD: even in the heavily explored road movie trope, Bretten Hannam is able to breathe fresh life into it, offering it up as a story of queerness, nature and homecoming.
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