INFINITY POOL is a compelling film that effectively garners visceral and spontaneous reactions to thoughtfully constructed grotesqueries. However, the scant implementation of the ideas driving the characters’ behaviour leaves it like that hotel leisure showpiece; the lack of boundaries is an intricately and considerately engineered illusion. A look beneath its glistening surface and the safe confinement becomes all too apparent.
There is a central idea between the dramatic unfoldings of BLUE JEAN: internalised homophobia triggers a fight or flight response. Walter Bradford Cannon’s famous ‘fight or flight’ theory, otherwise known as Acute Stress Response, is referenced early in Georgia Oakley’s outstanding feature debut. In BLUE JEAN, the stress Oakley’s Geordie protagonist Jean responds to is that of Margaret Thatcher’s homophobic amendment to British Law: Section 28.
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.
OFF THE RAILS is a breathless narrative that may have benefited from reflection and structure, but the spark and spirit are captivating throughout.
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.
