Hirokazu Koreeda and the late Ryuichi Sakamoto deliver a storytelling masterclass with their work on Monster. Three perspectives, each differing in tone, are woven together, revealing a tapestry of truth and identity. A single mother, Saori, delicately played by Sakura Andô, notices distress in her son Minato (Soya Kurokawa) when he comes home from school…… Continue reading Monster
Category: Movie Reviews
Janey
Janey Godley is immortalised in a biographical documentary illustrating her stand-up legacy following a diagnosis of terminal ovarian cancer. Reflecting on her childhood, she considers how this has informed the raising of her daughter whilst navigating her relationship with comedy, performance, and identity. Janey was screened as part of the programme for the 2024 Glasgow Film…… Continue reading Janey
The Inventor
An independent animation about Leonardo da Vinci has all the creativity of the Renaissance inventor. However, its absence of a story in The Inventor best positions the film as a learning tool for schools rather than as an enjoyable piece of cinema. Written and directed by Jim Capobianco, a former Oscar nominee for his masterful…… Continue reading The Inventor
Origin
Ava DuVernay’s Origin continues the filmmakers tendency in highlighting the African American experience. By adapting the tale of how Isabel Wilkerson wrote Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, DuVernay tackles the wider issue of caste. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is our author, Isabel Wilkerson, as the film weaves family affairs, the research process, and the contextual history…… Continue reading Origin
High and Low: John Galliano
Kevin Macdonald’s compelling documentary traces John Galliano’s working and private life through the decades, candidly investigating his struggles with addiction and the industry pressure he faced along the way, questioning whether his outbursts were explainable, rationalisable, or even forgivable.
Cat Person
Based on the controversial New Yorker short story, Cat Person’s cinematic adaptation, directed by Susanna Fogel, is an unfortunate, problematic depiction of how it demonstrates the anxieties of being a woman. Released two weeks before Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex, sandwiching Cat Person with Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman, its political activism should have had strength…… Continue reading Cat Person
Killers of the Flower Moon
Directed by Martin Scorsese and co-written with Eric Roth, the epic on the treatment of the Osage people is a spectacle starring long-time collaborators Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio that firmly belongs on streaming and is likely to bring the spotlight onto the indigenous communities during the awards seasons for the first time since…… Continue reading Killers of the Flower Moon
Chasing Chasing Amy
“The film wasn’t my truth” admits Joey Lauren Adams, the lead actress from Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy, the Golden Globe nominated film about a man who falls in love with a lesbian. Except for Chasing Chasing Amy’s Sav Rodgers, it’s entirely their truth. Chasing Amy became their everything. An all-consuming identity they have obsessed over…… Continue reading Chasing Chasing Amy
Fingernails
Fingernails is a narratively void and unfulfilling science-fiction melodrama from Christos Nikou starring Riz Ahmed and Jessie Buckley that only scratches the surface of what it’s trying to say. In an alternate society, love is finally quantifiable. Partners undergo analysis of their fingernails to see whether one or both are in love wholly with the…… Continue reading Fingernails
Robot Dreams
There is a beautiful simplicity in Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams, based on the graphic novel of the same name by Sara Varon. The subtleties of glances, and its score elevate the story of Dog and Robot to perfection. A Dog, and his constructed friend Robot learn separation, and companionship within a 1980s New York. Where…… Continue reading Robot Dreams