SUNDANCE 2019: This Is Not Berlin
Politically fearless, individual, and deliciously subversive, Hari Sama’s fifth feature film This Is Not Berlin showcases a period of Mexico’s society, more specifically from its adolescent perspective, that’s in a state of wayward angst and yet finds the energy to make its case. It’s entirely…
SUNDANCE 2019: The Souvenir
Director of the amazing Unrelated (2007), Archipelago (2010) and Exhibition (2013) (all of which have gone under-the-radar, particularly in the US) Joanna Hogg now returns with the eagerly anticipated The Souvenir Part One. Those familiar with her work will be used to her slow-paced, but…
REVIEW: The Mule (2019)
Could this be a new trend in filmmaking; pensioners partaking in criminal activities? We had both King of Thieves and the near-perfect The Old Man & The Gun last year; now we have The Mule, which moves away from robberies into drug trafficking. But this…
REVIEW: Instant Family (2019)
In the world of film, adoption has taken on many faces; Superman, Stitch, Adam Sandler and Sandra Bullock, to name a few. But amidst cinematic necessities, rarely is the more gruelling tapestry of the process captured. Instant Family makes an effort to buck the trend…
SUNDANCE 2019: Stieg Larsson: The Man Who Played With Fire
When we think of the popular and acclaimed “Millennium” crime novels we think of its film renditions and the indulgences of a good, steely read dipped in dark noir habits. However inviting those stories are, what is equally truer and stranger than the fiction that…
REVIEW: On Her Shoulders (2019)
On Her Shoulders is a documentary about Nadia Murad, a 23-year-old Yazidi, who survived genocide and sexual slavery committed by ISIS, and how she finds herself on the international stage as the voice for her people. Yazidis are a non-Muslim ethnic group with their own…
REVIEW: Iceman: The Time Traveller (2018)
This 2018 fantasy martial arts film, a sequel to 2014s Iceman, is directed by Wai Man Yip and stars Donnie Yen, Baoqiang Wang, Shengyi Huang, Kang Yu and Simon Yam. The time-travelling Ming dynasty warrior Ho Ying (Yen) is frozen in time due to an avalanche…
REVIEW: Monsters And Men (2019)
The enablement of recording footage. Mobile phones capturing those precious moments that we relish compiling together and perhaps replay in times of despair, to raise us up in our darkest hours. So often looking to broaden their reach and embrace our nearest and dearest in…
REVIEW: Vice (2019)
Adam McKay, widely known for his beloved comedies like Step Brothers, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and Anchorman, decided he wanted to be more highly regarded in the awards-orientated circles of Hollywood when he made 2015’s The Big Short. An energetic exposé of the inner…
REVIEW: Glass (2019)
“They always underestimate the mastermind.” 19 years after being the only survivor of a train crash and discovering he has superhero-like abilities, David Dunn (Willis) runs his security shop by day and protects the streets of New York at night in a green poncho…