Set amid the febrile atmosphere of the early 1970s Brazilian military dictatorship, I’m Still Here, which is based on the book of the same name by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, is a sobering true story of political oppression and family resilience. This is, in almost all respects, an exquisite piece of filmmaking but given the subject matter, it doesn’t emotionally shirtfront
Read moreRevered Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s latest film The Seed of the Sacred Fig was made in secret before Rasoulof fled Iran under threat of arrest and imprisonment. He now lives in Germany and this film was Germany’s nominee for best International Feature Oscar. While this mostly riveting film maintains the very high standard of works from Iranian directors that reach
Read moreSome silly humour and 80’s movie “hooray for entrepreneurial capitalism” clichés aside, One Of Them Days is a vibrant, sassy feel-good comedy that celebrates and affectionately jokes with African American culture. The set up in this film is pretty familiar, having seen it in movies like Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Due Date, where the responsible person’s life is constantly
Read moreIn 2008, Mickey Rourke made a much-lauded comeback in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler. That movie explored the traumatic life of a person on the fringes of the entertainment industry (in that case, lower tier pro-wrestling) facing the end of their career. In so doing, it examined identity, masculinity, the industry in which the character worked and seemingly reflected the challenging
Read moreBased on a Stephen King short story and directed by Osgood Perkins, who gave us last year’s overrated Longlegs, The Monkey is an awkward mash-up of grossout horror and quirky comedy that isn’t especially scary or funny. The eponymous monkey is a slightly creepy looking toy critter that two young twins, obnoxious bully Bill and his main victim, nervous younger
Read moreMixing raw and confronting ‘life on the skids’ drama with touches of the surreal, British director Andrea Arnold’s impressively ambitious if uneven, Bird will entrance many but leave some a little confused. The film centres on 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) who lives in a highly dysfunctional household with her sullen brother, Hunter (Jason Buda) who seems to be part of
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