REVIEW: Hellbender (Fantasia 2021)
In Stephenie Meyer’s famous teen saga Twilight, a vampire is at their most powerful when young – but also at their most dangerous. Since a similar concept is employed in occult coming-of-age tale Hellbender, it is fitting that Zelda Adams – who gives life to…
REVIEW: Alien on Stage (Fantasia 2021)
If someone says to you, “Alien can be funny to watch,” keep your head cool. The remark might just be an abbreviated reference to the stage version from an am-dram group, or the subject of Alien on Stage, rather than a diss at the classic…
REVIEW: King Car (Fantasia 2021)
Brazilian cinema has surprisingly flourished under the inhospitable conditions imposed by the Bolsonaro regime. Well, not quite surprisingly, since political turmoil has fuelled cinematic production in the country for decades, from Glauber Rocha’s Aesthetics of Hunger to Eduardo Coutinho’s sharp, groundbreaking documentaries. The current government,…
INTERVIEW: The Cast and Crew of Baby Don’t Cry (Fantasia 2021)
Having its world premiere at the 25th Fantasia International Film Festival, running from August 5 to August 25, is a distinct story about growing up as an Asian in the United States. It isn’t sunny. It doesn’t take place in a city of dreams and…
TRIBECA REVIEW: Peace By Chocolate (2021)
When your country is in the midst of a civil war, it would seem like getting to the point where you have to decide to leave home and become a refugee would be the hardest part. And then getting a placement to establish residency in…
TRIBECA REVIEW: Accepted (2021)
The story of Accepted begins with a viral video: a young Black high school student sits in front of a computer, surrounded by friends and family, anxiously awaiting the results of his college admission. Suddenly, the room erupts into cheers: he’s been accepted into an…
TRIBECA INTERVIEW: ‘Kata’ Director James Latimer
Appearance can only tell a fraction of the story, and it’s a notion wholly applicable to Kata, a martial arts short from Japan-based filmmaker James Latimer currently showing at Tribeca in the “Go Big” programme. The seven-minute work is, like Bart Layton’s docudrama American Animals,…
TCMFF 2021: Humphrey Bogart and Jimmy Stewart in early Anti-Fascist Works
Black Legion (1937) and The Mortal Storm (1940) It is always fascinating and astonishing to look at works of art that come out of war time or political turmoil while the events are still ongoing. If you look at the war films made during World War…
REVIEW: Cowboys (BFI Flare 2021)
When it comes to trans visibility, mainstream entertainment narratives have a tendency to lean towards showcasing adults’ stories. This then leaves a gaping hole when it comes to stories of young people navigating their gender identity, unfortunately unconsciously feeding into this belief that children are…
REVIEW: Language Lessons (SXSW 2021)
For most of 2020, filmmakers have been bashing their heads against a wall trying to figure out how to make a movie in the midst of a global pandemic. Traditional sets require safety measures that are cost prohibitive for many independent film productions, so the…
REVIEW: Fugitive Dreams (MANIFF 2021)
It’s hard to accurately summarise Jason Neulander’s Fugitive Dreams. On the one hand, watching the film is like being thrown into a surreal, Kaufman-esque, tripped out, biblical fever dream. On the other hand, (as its synopsis states) it’s a road trip through rural Americana, with…
REVIEW: Boy Meets Boy (BFI Flare 2021)
For his feature film debut, Boy Meets Boy, writer and director Daniel Sánchez López transports audiences to the streets of Berlin for a whirlwind holiday romance. After Harry (Matthew James Morrison) a doctor from Nottingham, comes to the end of a two day bender during…
REVIEW: My First Summer (BFI Flare 2021)
A hidden house in the woods, sparkly bracelets and coffee with marshmallows – what more could you ask for from a delicate coming-of-age story? My First Summer takes you to rural Australia merely days after tragedy has struck in a local stream, and follows the…
