The inaugural edition of the North West Independent Film Festival in Preston used its second day to focus on the theme of ‘Shifting Grounds: Breaking Cycles, Seeking Truths’, showcasing films which hold a spirit of independence and creative ambition.
HARVEST is too tonally inconsistent and tediously obtuse to harvest any emotional substance from the ideas that it sows.
Emma Mackey is an engaging screen presence that keeps HOT MILK more or less on track in her lead role, but the lack of narrative direction leaves her character and the film to languish in the hot Spanish sun.
By defying a desire for simplistic metaphors and clear avatars for contemporary concerns, it’s arguable that 28 YEARS LATER allows meaning to emerge in the minds of individual viewers in more complex and unexpected ways.
The working-class coming-of-age genre has been one especially prone to descending into self-pitying or melodramatic tones without a strong vision behind it. CHRISTY never fails to feel genuine, the Berlinale ’14plus’ winner covering a rekindling of a fraught brotherhood with a joyous air of authenticity.
With almost thirty years having passed since the first MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, the series has lasted much longer than the legendary 5-seconds-until-self-destruction. However, even if this latest spectacle delivers more than a tiny puff of smoke in an 80s tape player, it represents a fizzling out nonetheless.
Uberto Pasolini ably converts the last half of Homer’s Odyssey into a single narrative by focusing on the trauma of returning home when you’re no longer the person you were when you left.
The premise of renting people to fill social roles resembles Werner Herzog’s FAMILY ROMANCE, LLC or Yorgos Lanthimos’ ALPS. Still, Bernhard Wenger, the film’s writer and director, takes the film in a different direction that feels very Östlund-esque but without Östlund’s satirical bite. As the film concludes, it feels like it has pulled its punches a little.
Though THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA alludes to broader themes around media production and how broadcast media edits narratives to cut out the messy humanity of people’s lives, the film focuses on telling an entertaining story and highlighting Hauser’s performance.
A tender and moving exploration of grief and art’s power to heal, GHOSTLIGHT’s performances, script, and tone are judged with expert subtlety and emotional authenticity.
