Passages
The character of Tomas, whose emotional and sexual openness reflects commitment to art and new experiences, embodies Ira Sachs’s PASSAGES – uncomfortable and challenging but exhilarating and captivating.
All content tagged Jim Ross
Master Gardener
As frustratingly stilted as MASTER GARDENER can be, Paul Schrader has still planted the seeds of something curiously mesmerising to watch grow.
Unclenching the Fists
UNCLENCHING THE FISTS explores the struggles of a young woman named Ada, and is a powerful portrayal of the impact of patriarchal structures – societal and familial – on the women within.
Cinema Will Live Forever or Die Trying
Reports of cinema’s death are greatly exaggerated, but the attack on the ‘big screen experience’ is coming from inside the building. As the focus on films continues to dwindle, and more and more desperate attempts are made to augment a diminished core experience, cinemagoing increasingly resembles an embodiment of a famous Groucho Marx quote: “I intend to live forever, or die trying.”
Girl
Adura Onashile’s GIRL is a gentle and sometimes hypnotic view of a life laced with the after-effects of trauma. The film is an elegantly slow-burning drama, and its willingness to let the visuals and understated performances establish an atmosphere allows the audience to feel Grace and Ama’s emotions all the more keenly.
Infinity Pool
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.
Aftersun
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
Resurrection
Although the story develops inconsistently, a captivating trauma-laced performance from Rebecca Hall and a confidently creepy supporting one from Tim Roth combines with an intense atmosphere in Andrew Semans’ feature to create a gripping horror story.
Don’t Look Up
Although DON’T LOOK UP is undoubtedly sharper than Adam McKay’s previous political feature, VICE, the same smugness and cocksure piety blunt the more incisive moments, just as many performances are pitched more for caricature than satire.
Eternals
ETERNALS is an odd blend, featuring segments of unusual natural beauty and humanity for a comic book blockbuster. Still, this tonal change is stymied by the need to stick mostly by the formula of its franchise brethren, and the film feels very inhibited as a result of its lack of boldness.