Surveillance and found-footage films have been used for scares, for reflections on the digital age, and purely for the fun of piecing together a story from many everyday viewpoints. Jonathan Ogilvie’s LONE WOLF takes Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent into a near-future Australia, where the surveillance state can see – and access – every waking … Continue reading Lone Wolf
“Something happened to the men’s blood. They remained children.” Thus speaks Margarita, the matriarch of her family. She is convinced that someday her family curse will be broken – their winter stagnation will come to an end, her love will return to her, and perhaps, at the magical thirteenth hour, they will defeat death itself. … Continue reading The North Wind
While impossible to epitomise French cinema’s various movements and themes, Benoît Jacquot’s domestic drama – adapted from a play by Marguerite Duras – certainly captures many popularly held ideas of French stories, at least on the surface. Suzanna (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is married to a philandering millionaire; she does not know where he is. She appears … Continue reading Suzanna Andler
ARISTOCRATS is an anti-romcom decked out in the trappings of a romance film. The action is set in a city of opportunity, where two women chase their dreams against societal and family expectation. Carmen Paddock at IFFR.
A beautifully shot film, THE DOG WHO WOULDN’T BE QUIET is a cinematic ballad to how humans are tested (often unfairly), how we adapt to even absurd circumstances and how we develop connections – or, indeed, do not – with those around us.
Fran Kranz’s intense chamber piece is a devastating and formally accomplished story on the nature of forgiveness, guilt and vindictiveness. Jim Ross reviews at Sundance 2021.
The difficulties of motherhood and creation, in all its forms, are at the fore of AURORA. Carmen Paddock reviews at IFFR 2021.
RIDERS OF JUSTICE is underpinned by the innate absurdity of existence and love for the fools navigating this abyss. The film’s weakest sides are its predictable concluding beats, but it is hard to be mad at a film this good-hearted.
Alex Camilleri’s feature directorial debut is a melancholy lament on the decline of traditional ways of life. Without romanticising an often difficult daily life, his story of a Maltese fisherman is naturalistic but beautiful.
There is plenty to commend the technical and performance aspects of JOHN AND THE HOLE. Still, the storytelling choices and structure fill in the intriguing gaps with narrative quicksand, into which the film’s potential slowly sinks.
