The impression given in LETTER TO A FRIEND is that what once had a sense of perpetuity has undergone a rapid, recent, and enduring change. An accelerating transformation that has not only scarred a Bethlehem neighbourhood physically but has warped the nature of the very fabric of life.
The erasure methods employed by the hegemonic cultural mainstream have been many, but the means by which LGBTQ people have fought for visibility and the freedom to present as they wish publicly and proudly are far greater. NITRATE KISSES is one such expression of that pride and power.
It’s inevitable that WE’RE STILL HERE will leave you wanting to grab some campaign boards and join in on the wave of activism. Ciéra Cree reviews at Document Human Rights Film Festival.
SYNCHRONIC joins the dense history of time travel films with an intriguing mechanic and clear character motivations to attach to it. However, Benson and Moorhead’s film zips by at a pace that means our attachment to those characters never develops the film into the emotionally engaging feature it could have been.
At its heart, BABY DONE is a film about being uncomfortable adopting the roles of parenthood, and realising they’re only as restricting as we allow them to be. The film’s shortcomings aren’t from a lack of ideas, but rather from their execution.
STARDUST isn’t terrible, but it doesn’t seem to strive for much more than that. The Bowie biopic lacks the cryptic charisma of its subject; something that might distract from a disjointed and inconsequential narrative.
Beneath the documentary textures of BLOODY NOSE, EMPTY POCKETS, its vérité camerawork and calm but quick editing schemes, something planned and constructed is at work. The Ross brothers transform a concocted scenario into a space full of what seems like extempore feeling and lived-in experience. Marc Nelson reviews.
TENET ends up something of a Rube Goldberg machine of a film: a wondrously complex set of mechanics that is fascinating, but also an incredibly convoluted way of masking what is, in essence, a thin and poorly executed story.
There will be much debate as to what this film is – if it is a film at all. But what can be deduced from the experience is that utopia is far from our grasp, and our understanding of what utopia is, is far from universal. Steph Brown reviews.
IHUMAN won’t be new for anyone who’s kept up to date with any of the other numerous documentaries on data mining and surveillance but it’s nifty in tying everything together and offers a sense of understanding, albeit one we may wish we never had. April McIntyre reviews.
