Annemarie Jacir on reclamation and telling hidden histories in Palestine 36
All the details of how to control and occupy a people are placed from that (British colonial) moment. The British were experts at it by the time they came to Palestine.…
Reviews
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Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars delivers an uninspired post-apocalyptic drama with thin characterisation and a cliched plot
Scott seems to be going through the motions with The Dog Stars by not greatly concerning himself with pacing (the first act is tediously long), not particularly interested in adding to the whisper-thin characterisation and only seems to come alive during scenes of violent interactions…
Wilderness is a profoundly misguided attempt to bring environmental issues to the forefront in a film that consistently brushes them aside
Martin McKenna’s long-gestating film Wilderness very occasionally allows glimpses of a better film he chose not to make. It gives me absolutely no pleasure to write a review of a small budget Australian film and deem it incompetent on almost every level.…
Inventive and absurd, Yesterday Island is a terrific low-budget Australian black comedy
Perhaps the best thing about Sam Voutas’ inventive black comedy is that it’s near impossible to avoid thinking of people you’d willingly send to the island, proving that there’s a bit of pettiness to all of us, and certainly some malleable ethics.…
Montreal, My Beautiful: It’s Never Too Late to Find Yourself
Montreal, My Beautiful is a quiet, deeply tender film about the parts of ourselves that can disappear beneath the weight of responsibility, and the extraordinary feeling of discovering that they were…
Vee Shi’s family docudrama Time and Tide shows China’s Filial Piety Law as emotionally and financially complex
It is steadfast in its portrait of the family at their best and at their most exhausted and frayed. With the camera picking up not only the conversations and arguments, but also the physical dynamic of the family, Shi invites us into a world where the most casual acts are imbued with meaning.…
Gregg Araki says let’s get physical in I Want Your Sex
I Want Your Sex is a comic masterpiece with Araki sparing no one. The contemporary art world is far from groundbreaking, Erika is “over the hill” by her late 30s, Apple is fragile to the point where she “just can’t” with most things. And Elliot, poor Elliot, is a puppy who still isn’t housetrained.…
Harvey Zielinski's Sweet Milk Lake instils a powerful trust with its audience
Jake has recently become the man he always was. His family has not caught up. That is the whole engine of Sweet Milk Lake, and Harvey Zielinski, who wrote it and directed it and plays both of its lead…
The Leader is a powerful and disturbing dive into the mechanisms of cults
The Leader is observant and chilling; boasting one of Vera Farmiga’s most robust performances.…
Covi and Frimmel’s docufiction keeps the Blues alive in Al Cook’s mighty heart
The Loneliest Man in Town is a muted masterwork. Touching, gentle, sometimes very funny, and within its specificity speaks of something universal.…
Alexandre O. Philippe’s intimate portrait of Kim Novak allows her to appreciate herself
Kim Novak emerges from her memories as a fully realised human who is revitalised by the chance to speak openly about her biggest fear to find it overcome. Kim Novak discovers Kim Novak and she likes her.…
The Last Viking is happy to ensure there’s plenty of space in the world for absurdity
Escaping reality is part of being human: and for these characters, both diagnosed and not, they are regularly in a state of fantasy, convincing themselves of a world that supports the hiding of pain.…