Difficult to describe, a pleasure to watch. Sometimes, a movie requires patience. Watching Georgian director Anna Urushadze’s Scary Mother, I kept trying to pinpoint the film’s genre. I would think it was a drama about a stifling marriage, until it…
Tells the stories that need to be told Storytelling plays a crucial role in Transit, a film about displacement during wartime, directed by Christian Petzold and adapted from Anna Segher’s novel. There’s a scene in which Georg (Franz Rogowski), a…
The most intense bonds are often the most unstable The best movies tell only the stories they need to tell, with only the resources they need. Directed by Debra Granik, Leave No Trace is perfectly minimal. Based on Peter Rock’s…
Film Review: ‘Mary Shelley’ Recalls with earnestness and urgency the fascinating life of a towering figure Writer of the most influential science fiction novel of all time, Mary Wollstencraft Godwin Shelley lived a torrid life. Straddling poverty, she shacked up…
A promising director’s most accomplished work yet Playing at this year’s American Essentials Film Festival, Lynn Shelton latest, Outside In, is easily her most accomplished work yet. She applies the improvised, almost dogme-like Mumblecore approach, headed by this film’s producers…
Sometimes the most modest films deserve the biggest screens As production companies continue to balk at theatrically releasing their movies, streaming behemoth Netflix snaps up the most interesting and daring contemporary movies. On the one hand, smaller, more challenging movies…
As a loving and proud Northcote resident — a bit too proud, my friends might say — I’d like to think of it as the hood that has it all (as it does, of course, and always will). Going North,…
A spiritual journey that will reflect upon the viewer. Generally speaking, modern Australians are sceptical people. Our childhoods are rarely defined by strict adherence to religion, unlike a Catholic Irish upbringing or an orthodox Jewish American one. I was born…
France’s most controversial director delivers one of its most beautiful films in years. Introducing the film, the director of the 2018 Alliance Française French Film Festival slipped in a cautionary adjective, referring to Albert Dupontel as one of France’s most…
Michael Haneke depicts contemporary life better than most directors half his age. Nobody can place a camera like Michael Haneke. Director of cinematic endurance tests (Funny Games) and aggressively perverted relationship comedies (The Piano Teacher) Haneke has a fondness for…