Category: Movie Reviews

11/23/2025 – Hedda

On By LaurenDolceVitaIn Movie Reviews, New Release Reviews, New Releases, New Releases, Quick Daily ReviewsLeave a comment

Much like yesterday, I’ve felt the need to explore the wonders of sapphic cinema, and while yesterday I visited the very beginning of lesbians on screen, today I am visiting potentially the most recent lesbian take on Nia DaCosta’s on the classic Henrik Ibsen play Hedda Gabler or in this iteration just Hedda. DaCosta chooses to gender swap Eilert Lövborg the titular character’s previous love interest with Eileen Lövborg giving the film a new sapphic twist.

Hedda Gabler/Tesman (Tessa Thompson) is a woman unenthused with her life despite her husband George (Tom Bateman) going far beyond his means to give her everything she could possibly want including a giant, opulent home he cannot afford. While she seems to be initially dreading the party she and her husband will be hosting, a call from an old acquaintance Eileen Lövborg (Nina Hoss) cause her outlook on the night to change instantly. With a new outlook on the evening, Hedda begins manipulating the actions and emotions of her guests to bring about her goals, and respark her past love for the fairer sex.

Tessa Thompson as the titular Hedda Gabler/Tesman

DaCosta is clearly familiar with the concept of the “disaster lesbian” as Hedda not only fits the archetype to the t but also possesses the uncanny ability to bring out the disaster in the other lesbians around her. Tessa Thompson brings Hedda to life with craftiness and plenty of alure that convincingly captivates the attention of every party guest. Nina Hoss despite being a supporting actress has the most interesting and challenging roll which she nails every part of. She goes from cold and in control, to a messy drunk, to a suicidal wreck over the course of the party, and every turn is delivered in a way such that she creates a complex character who holds multitudes.

Nina Hoss as Eileen Lövborg

While I appreciate the acting decisions by both actresses, they do not exactly mesh. I find it hard to believe that the confident Eileen who appears at Hedda’s party could be swayed into drinking (she is a recovered alcoholic) so easily, especially with her current creative and romantic partner Thea (Imogen Poots) urging her to stay strong and resist. Hedda does not come across as a mastermind who can expertly pull the strings to get her way, but as a hurt lovestruck puppy who is making decisions on vibes. While I appreciate both performances, they do not fit the screenplay that was handed to them.

The pieces of the film from behind the camera were also rather hit or miss. Hildur Guðnadóttir continues to be one of the best score composers working today as her score has significant propulsion yet and off kilter sparticness that matches with Thompson’s Hedda exactly. Other parts of the filmmaking process, however, feel rather like they come from a director with endless talent’s first film. They show an intuition for interesting effects yet an imperfect implementation. Specifically, the camera moves in unique ways and captures scenes through unique techniques and angles which initially create diversity and interest when viewing. However, after the first 20 minutes or so they prove to be more of a distraction than anything else.

While this review may have veered into the negative, I still believe that the film was good though not great. Fun performances, even if they do not relate perfectly, will always be an entertaining watch, and who doesn’t need more sapphic messiness in their life? Hopefully by watching films like Hedda we can avoid becoming the disaster lesbian in real life.

New Release Mondays – All We Imagine as Light

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Grand Prix winner (second prize) at Cannes this year was the Indian film All We Imagine as Light, and it was easily the best of the big three award winners (Emilia Pérez was the Jury Prize winner and Anora won the Palme). While being produced in India, don’t expect any fantastical action or musical numbers as is common with Bollywood fare. Payal Kapadia’s film instead has more in common with a US independent film than the studio system in her country.

The film centers on roommates and nurses at the same hospital in Mumbai, Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha) and their relationships. Prabha as the senior of the two women, has been married for years, but her husband has been working and living in Germany for quite a while and his calls have become less and less frequent. At the beginning of the film, it has been over a year since they’ve talked, but out of the blue he sends her a high-end rice cooker in the mail without so much as a letter. This brings her relationship or lack thereof to the forefront of Prabha’s mind.

Anu’s love life differs greatly from that of Prabha’s, but is no less complicated. She is in a relationship with a Muslim man Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon).  The cultural difference between the two means they must keep their relationship a secret, though their success at that is questionable as their relationship is the subject of gossip between the nurses at the hospital. Compounding on this is that her parents are constantly sending her pictures of Hindi men that they are trying to marry her off to.

The final plot line in the film follows Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) a cook working at the same hospital as Prabha and Anu. She is being evicted from her home of 22 years by a predatory building company since she has no papers after the loss of her husband. Eventually she succumbs to the pressure from the builders and returns to her small village far from Mumbai with the help from Prabha and Anu where the second half of the film takes place.

The beauty of the film is in the intimacy of both the relationships and the camera work. Cinematographer Ranabir Das holds tight on faces and hands to tell the story of how each character feels about the other. These close ups rely heavily on the actors to have perfect control over their facial expressions, and they live up to the expectations.

This intimacy is also expressed in the screenplay. Written by the director, Kapadia touches on both the day-to-day livings of her female protagonists as well as the major, or major to the characters, relationships with men. This blending of events makes the characters feel real and their experiences true to life. The lives of the characters feel lived in and personal, inducing empathy from the audience.

Intimate stories of women’s lives often get the short shrift in the film industry, especially in areas of the world where women have fewer rights, but Kapadia works against the system to create something special. Cannes missed out on having unprecedented back-to-back female filmmakers win the Palme as All We Imagine as Light is a perfect film.

New Release Mondays – Flow

On By LaurenDolceVitaIn Movie Reviews, New Release Reviews, New Releases, New ReleasesLeave a comment

Set in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity is gone, but their past is still present, Flow utilizes this setting to create a beautiful world for its protagonist, a gorgeous black cat, to explore. The Latvian film directed by Gints Zilbalodis subjects the wonderfully rendered cat to a flood of biblical proportions forcing it to explore the world and cooperate with other animals against its natural instincts.

Cat traverses the flooded landscape on a boat it happens upon populated by a capybara which it is understandably tentative of. The makeshift crew of the boat expands to include a ring-tailed lemur, a labrador whom Cat had encountered before the flood, and a secretarybird. While in nature the animals would be at the best ambivalent to each other if not outright hostile, the boat brings with it an unspoken truce between the animals as they look to exist in the strange new world.

Zilbalodis shows real restraint in his characterization of the animals that inhabit the film. While most films would lean on humanizing the wild animals, each one feels genuine to its species when interacting in the world. This is captured both in small moments inserted into the film to remind the viewers they are watching animals (a moment of Cat chasing a sun sport as reflected in Lemur’s mirror stands out) as well as behaviors exhibited throughout. For example, Cat frequently retreats to the top of the mast for a solitary moment amongst the chaos of the animals. Likewise, Capybara is aloof and flops down on the deck of the boat to rest at random times. Most importantly, the animals never speak a language outside of their own noises, yet the feelings and motivations of each animal can clearly always be ascertained.

By keeping the animals so honest to their animalistic selves, the peril they experience as well as the joy hit the viewer more emotionally than a personified version would. Cat’s meows hit a nerve that any owner of felines understands intimately and caused this black cat owner to long to be reunited with her furball.

The only real exception to this naturalist portrayal of the animals is that they all seem to inherently know how to use the rutter to steer the boat, a job which Secretarybird takes point on once it joins the boat, but which each animal takes its turn at. This singular task is required for the animals to be able to successfully explore the newly aquatic world, but quickly falls into the realm of suspended disbelief as the rest of the animals’ behaviors feel so genuine to their species.

Another undeniable strength of the film is its visuals. The art is stylized in a way the eschews photorealism for a look that allows the animals to be more expressive, with giant eyes which speak wonders. Everything in the film is brilliantly colored in a fantastical way which while unrealistic compliments the magical essence of the situation. The remains of human civilization that the animals navigate feel both futuristic and ancient, which adds to the mystery of the world in which the animals live.

Flow is a perfect antidote to the American animation scene where even the best of films are filed with one liners and a constant state of irony left over from the 90s. The genuineness of the Latvian feature allows the viewer to connect more closely with the characters even though they don’t speak a word. Beautiful both in image and plot, Flow is the peak of what the animated medium can accomplish when allowing the creators to think outside of the snarky box in which most US animated studios reside.

New Release Mondays – Inside Out 2

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Pixar returns to the sequel machine for its 2024 endeavor, but this time instead of making a sequel of a less critically received film (ala cars), they turn the machine to one of the most beloved films in their catalogue, Inside Out. Does the beloved 2015 film survive the sequlization? Well yes and no. Inside Out 2 is definitely the lesser of the two films, but it does stand on its own at least decently well.

In the first Inside Out, a young girl, Riley is transplanted from her home in Minnesota to San Fransico, a change that she was not ready for and did not acclimate well to. During the film, the personified emotions that run her evolved from distinct feelings (i.e. Riley either felt nothing but Joy, or Sadness etc…) un-mixing in their control, to something more complex. The concept of bittersweet (a combination of Joy and Sadness) was especially prominent in the film as Joy, the head emotion, was forced to accept that she would have to share her responsibilities with the other emotions, especially Sadness.

In the sequel, Riley is on the precipice of high school and finally content in her new life in California, The emotions in her head have running her down to a well oiled machine, that is until the night before she starts hockey camp when a puberty alarm starts to go off, and suddenly Joy and the gang are confronted with a group of new emotions headed by Anxiety. From there the original bunch are removed from the brain so that anxiety can take over and run Riley from this point on.

In theory setting a second Inside Out around puberty makes sense. It feels like it could be a story people actually wanted to tell and not just some sinical cash grab, and I believe it does cross that hump. The introduction of anxiety who “protects her [Riley] from the things she can’t see” as opposed to fear who “protects her [Riley] from the things she can see” is a great piece of character development and sets the film out well. Anxiety’s control of Riley leads her to take more nuanced decisions in life rather than just following the easy path to immediate joy. Anxiety is more worried about future joy for the young girl. But when Anxiety works too hard without the other emotions, it leads to tossing and turning in the night, and worst of all a really affecting portrayal of a panic attack.

Unfortunately, the film has the same resolution as the first film, that all the emotions need to work together and that one alone cannot run Riley’s life. The shared resolution is a common theme that plagues sequels, and while I would have hoped that with a novel enough setup Inside Out 2 could have beat this pattern, it succumbed like many others.

Technically the film looks extremely polished, as all Pixar films are, though I am tired of the Disney and Pixar look that encompasses much of animation landscape. Voice actors were well chosen with Amy Poehler reprising her role as Joy and bringing as much excitement to it as ever. Maya Hawke gave the deepest performance capturing her love for Riley as she was actively making her life worse.

Another sequel for Pixar, another film that fails to live up to the magic of the original, and while certainly not a bad film, I doubt it will make my rotation of Pixar films I go back to of which the original is solidly in. Something is just missing in the Pixar formula when revisiting a space. Maybe it’s the magic of seeing something new and unique for the first time?

New Release Mondays – Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

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9 years after his award-winning return to the world of Mad Max with Mad Max: Fury Road auteur George Miller once again tackles the Australian wasteland, but this time with a heroine Furiosa as the title character. Charlize Theron passes the baton to Anya Taylor-Joy and the young Alyla Browne to play Furiosa in this prequel.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a pretty straight forward revenge film, but being straight forward is not a deterrence, contrary, the simplicity of the story allows for Miller’s signature style to build upon that basic skeleton into something fantastical. Furiosa is kidnapped as a child and forced to watch her mother perish at the hands of her captor Dr. Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). After Furiosa escapes Dementus’s hands – into the equally bad control of Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme) – she begins planning her escape and eventual revenge.

While the film is advertised as a showdown between Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, Alyla Browne deserves much more credit than she is getting. She performs as the titular Furiosa for at least half if not more of the film, and her physicality in acting at such a young age is commendable. When it is time for Anya Taylor-Joy to take over she steals the show as she does in everything she touches. Unfortunately, the acting of Chris Hemsworth is spotty at times as he struggles to capture the appropriate tone of campy but not buffoonish.

In the slog of action flicks, most of them superhero movies, that have plagued the box office for the past 15 years, it’s a marvel to see what miller can do with a similar budget. While most of the superhero films feel very sanitized and all run into one another they are so similar, Furiosa has action that one can feel, and that looks unique. He even found a way to add to the action repertoire of the last film by adding airborne militia. While long action scenes tend to leave this reviewer with her eyes glazing over, there was enough life in this film that it kept me engrossed throughout.

The main question on many people’s minds is bound to be, how does Furiosa compare to Fury Road? The major difference between the two is the pacing. Fury Road was almost a single action scene stretched out for over two hours, while Furiosa takes place over time with a heavier emphasis on story. This change of focus naturally leads to the action being a bigger part of Fury Road, and while the action in Furiosa is not any worse than that of Fury Roads, Fury Road’s ability to extend that action for 2 straight hours without being bogged down is such an impressive feat that it is a hard film to live up to.

While Fury Road will likely stand up to the years better than Furiosa, that says everything about the exquisiteness of the former rather than any downfall of the latter. Furiosa is still an invigorating watch, and if you are a fan of Chris Hemsworth’s schtick, you’ll be even higher on the film than I am.

New Release Monday – I Saw the TV Glow

On By LaurenDolceVitaIn Movie Reviews, New Release Reviews, New Releases, New ReleasesLeave a comment

A forward: I understand that this film won’t be for
everyone, some people will not be receptive to the trip that this film takes
its viewers on, and I’m sure this will have its fair share of 1-star reviews.
What I am telling you though is that if this film does resonate with you, you
cannot afford to miss it because it could very easily become a self-identifying
piece of media. I’m going to gush about this film for the next 1000 words or so
and I understand that some people may resent me if I make them see it, but I am
under the film’s spell, so this aggressively positive review is all I am
capable of. Also be warned this will go into spoilers as I feel I need to to
flush out the themes. Please go see this film and then come back after.


Three years after making the cult classic We’re All Going
to the World’s Fair (a film this reviewer will be catching up with in the
upcoming week,) Jane Schoenbrun returns to the big screen with what is destined
to go down as on of the quintessential Millennial pieces of filmmaking, I
Saw the TV Glow.

Taking place in the mid-90s, the film is about two teenagers,
two years apart, who form a bond over a young adult teen show The Pink
Opaque. Owen, Ian Foreman and Justice Smith as young and old Owen respectively,
is the younger of the two, and is unable to watch the show when it airs because
of his mother’s strict bedtime requirements for him. Alone and desperate for
someone to share her interest with, Maddy, Brigette Lundy-Paine, invites Owen over
one night to watch if with her, and then supplies him with taped copies of
episodes to watch when he is able.

One week when Owen spends the night at Maddy’s and she
convinces him to run away with her next weekend. Owen, scared to leave the
comfort of the life he knows doesn’t, show up and Maddy is left to run away on
her own. The film then jumps 8 years to when she returns and tries to explain
herself to Owen in the coolest looking and sounding queer bar caught on screen.

The live music in the bar is the peak of one of many
highlights from the film, the music both score and soundtrack. Schoenbrun had unprecedented
control over the music in her film having budget from A24 to create 12 to 15
original pieces of music. With this much control over the soundtrack,
Schoenbrun and musician Alex G were able to sculpt the exact soundscape that one
would expect the physical manifestation of a memory of a dream. It uses current
artists and techniques but It is such an ethereal sound that it makes sense to
score the 90s because that’s what a memory sounds like.

Stylistically I Saw the TV Glow relies on nostalgia. The
Pink Opaque is clearly a play on Buffy the Vampire Slayer or other
such TV shows that would be passed around on VHS. And while the picture quality
is crisp, the whole movie has a feel of being taped onto VHS. The soundtrack
relies on a lot of distorted synths, and footage of the show in particular are
rather distorted. Everything just feels like it lives in the late 90s, like the
film itself was a relic of the time only with deeper meaning being interjected
from the present.

Much of the deeper meaning that I Saw the TV Glow contains
comes from its surface level and more allegorical queerness. After the first
time skip, Owen approaches Maddy about watching The Pink Opaque together
again, and Maddy announces “You know I like girls right?” clearly announcing
herself as belonging to the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. In this way, she represents the
confident queer person who while they existed in the 90s were rather
countercultural.

Owen on the other hand represents the repressed queer
identity so uncomfortable with the concept that he was scared to admit it to
himself. When explain that he believes that he is ace, he describes it as thus:
“I can take a shovel and dig that part of me out and I know there’s nothing in
there, but I’m terrified to open it and look.”

Both of these ways of “dealing” with one’s queerness in the
90s capture one inevitability from that era, isolation and loneliness. Either
you live open and people reject you or you hide yourself and are too miserable
to have a thriving social life and the loneliness comes for you anyway.

The trans allegory is not a subtle one, Owen wears a dress
in a dreamlike state multiple times, and his father, randomly played by Fred
Durst, dismisses The Pink Opaque as a show for girls. The television
show itself and Owen’s relationship to it take supernatural form, and this
connection represents Owen’s transness. As a child watching the show is
something he keeps from his family, and it can be assumed that Maddy is the
only person he is open about it with. Many kids from that era (myself included)
would have that one friend to which they felt comfortable being open.

After Maddy disappears Owen keeps the show, his transness,
to himself. He becomes obsessed with the show as if the show has power over him.
When Maddy finally does reappear she exposes to him that The Pink Opaque was
more than a show, and that he is not who he thinks he is. She leads him to a
place where he can be reborn as his true self.

Confronted with the truth of who he is, he runs scared to
take the jump. This moment takes place in 2006, and it makes complete sense
that Owen would be scared to make the jump. It was an unknown at the time, and
risking the life he had, even if it has this loud ghost haunting him is at
least familiar. The problem with this decision is that The Pink Opaque never
leaves, in fact it grows like a tumor.

As a trans person myself, I instantly felt like this film is
an inextricable part of me. The pink TV static runs through my body, and brings
comfort to my isolated, closeted childhood self. Jane Schoenbrun created a film
that speaks directly to her, and like years of therapy has offered her a place
to call home. I Saw the TV Glow just resonates with whatever part makes one
feel isolated from the rest of the world. It is more than just a perfect film It
lives on with the viewer who is willing to accept it and becomes a part of
them.



New Release Monday – Evil Does Not Exist

On By LaurenDolceVitaIn Movie Reviews, New Release Reviews, New Releases, New ReleasesLeave a comment

After a breakout 2021 that saw a double feature’s worth of brilliant Japanese, arthouse cinema (Drive My Car and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy) Ryûsuke Hamaguchi was effectively crowned the international arthouse director to aspire to, and with his newest offering, Evil Does Not Exist, he reasserts that he deserves the title. His newest film follows in Hamaguchi’s motifs common throughout his past work with long conversations being common, and possessing a level of complexity that extends beyond the text. Evil Does Not Exist may also have his most textually complex ending to date.

The main premise of the film comes from a situation that Hamaguchi was experiencing first hand while deciding on his next film, and it involves a company buying land amongst a village, Mizubiki, where the residents live a ecofriendly lifestyle where they all rely on the natural spring water to survive and thrive. When the real estate company presents the citizens with their proposal to add a glamping facility to their village, dozens of concerns are aroused most of which revolve around the cleanliness of the spring water.

After meeting with the village, presenters Takahashi (Ryuji Kosaka) and Mayuzumi (Ayaka Shibutani) realize that they have empathy with the villagers and their demands, a fact which doesn’t sit well with their manager or consultant. However, instead of creating an adversarial relationship there, the two set off on a task given their boss’s advice and then he and the supervisor are never heard from again. The film instead focuses on how these two acclimate to their temporary residency.

The closest thing the film has to a protagonist is Hitoshi Omika as Takumi, a single father to the 8-year-old Hana (Ryo Nishikawa) and self proclaim odd-jobs man. Through him the audience is introduced to the village and the way of life it entails. He is also the lens through which Takahashi and Mayuzumi open up to the holistic way of living that is common in Mizubiki.

Omika was a tremendous actor considering this was his first time ever in front of a camera. His passive enjoyment of ever day life in the woods, chopping wood, filling up containers of spring water shows a lot of restraint that it takes some actors years to learn. He comes at most things with a laissez-faire attitude that builds an aura of mystery around him and his performance. It is possible that no professional actor could have play this role as it give so little that everything has to be inferred.

Without getting into spoilers, the ending must be remarked upon because it designates a change in Hamaguchi’s direction. While Hamaguchi has previously always worked in the immediate for his film making, the ending on Evil Does Not Exist sees him playing with time and reality in a way that leaves the viewer begging for a second watch in order to fully comprehend what happened.

Hamaguchi once again delivers a masterful film which’s subtext will keep the viewer busy for days processing everything the director wanted to say. Phenomenal acting. a score it is almost criminal I did not dive into detail about, and tight, measured direction leads to one of the best films in the first half of the year.

New Release Monday – Challengers

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Director Luca Guadagnino has done his share of passionate love stories in the past, so the complex love triangle of 2024’s Challengers made perfect sense for his next film. The film staring Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor as each side of the triangle uses the world of professional tennis as its backdrop, and while the tennis cinematography is exceptional, it is the off the court drama that sells the film.

The film primarily takes place during a challenger event where Art (Faist) and his now wife/coach Tashi (Zendaya) are participating as a warmup for the upcoming Open, while the shunned Patrick (O’Connor) is playing for his chance at a spot in the qualifier tournament for the same Open. The story of the three is then told in flash backs with each arch of the relationship between the three provides more salacious drama than the last.

The jumping through time aspect of the film works well because rather than go for a story arch, the film goes for an intrigue arch. While the flashbacks are primarily in chronological order, when the film deviates from this strict order, it is to hold back emotional punches for when they would be better appreciated. Guadagnino layers the film such that the intensity is always increasing with affairs and backstabbing filling up the latter half of the film.

While not the purpose of the film per se, the tennis playing needs to be commented on, and specifically the cinematography of the tennis. The playing is shot head on like most tennis in movies, this allows for the actors to be facing the camera while also removing the need for the actors to actually carry out a volley, but something small that director of photography Sayombhu Mukdeeprom chose to do that was unique was shoot the balls flying into the camera like it was a 3D movie. This little change ups the excitement of the tennis scenes tenfold.

Much of the film marketing attempted to sell Challengers on the sexiness of the three young, attractive actors and the risqué script. Unfortunately, that is the one aspect of the film that really falls short. Early in the film, there is a threesome sequence that while cut short hints at the heat the rest of the film promises, and yet, after that scene nothing is shown. Sex is implied to have occurred between various pairs of actors, but nothing is caught on camera. Not implying that the film needed to be X rated, but when the sex appeal is marketed upon so heavily one cannot help but expect a little more steam.

Misgivings about the sexiness of the film aside, Guadagnino delivers again. Challengers is an excellently paced invigorating watch. The cinematic landscape is significantly more chaste than it was in say the 90s, so any push in a more salacious direction is welcome. And more pictures by Guadagnino are welcome as well. He has a distinct voice, and his films always bring quality, and Challengers is no exception.

New Release Monday – Civil War

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Known for making some of the best science fiction films of the past decade (Ex Machina (2015) and Annihilation (2018)), Alex Garland set his sights to an alternate present rather than future with his newest film Civil War. Setting a film called Civil War in the US during the current political unrest is a dangerous endevor in which to partake, but by eliminating specific politics (so much so that California and Texas share a side), Garland gets his message across with out alienating, or worse enraging, half the nation.

Kirsten Dunst plays Lee a famous war photographer, who along with her coworker Joel (Wagner Moura) has her sight on the biggest photograph of her career, an exclusive photo of the president before the Western Forces (Texas and California) can breach Washington DC and execute him. They are joined by longtime friend and fellow press member Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) a young aspiring war photographer who looks up to Lee. Once they depart, the film structure becomes that of many vignettes as their van stops or is stopped for various reasons.

The vignette style is used to provide the viewer with snapshots of what the US would look like with the country torn apart. It focuses on the dehumanization that Americans would suddenly see for their brethren as soon as the government labels a subset of them enemies. From gleeful lynchings to depraved mass graves, without the connection of country, Garland shows how Americans would resort to their basest of instincts and inflict violence on the people they no longer consider one of their own.

Assigning multiple characters as photographers, one would hope that Civil War would have some beautiful cinematography, and director of photography Rob Hardy delivers with some stunning camera work. The video is accompanied by still photos representing what Lee or Jessie shoot, and especially the black and white photos by Jessie are stunning.

Civil War is definitely a political film, but the politics are not what one would expect given the premise. There is no right and left, conservative and progressive, only people A and people B. By refusing to take a stance on the hot button issues of today, Garland instead peaks deeper at the soul of an American, and at the price of war.

Garland displays a rather bleak view of Americans. He portrays a country that is so caught up in loyalty, that even if the cause of the split is unspoken, the people will immediately align with their “side” and otherize/ dehumanize the other people. Civil War has an extremely misanthropic view of Americans, and given the partisanship expressed in reality, it is not hard to see why.

The other hidden politics of Civil War is to help Americans to see the terror of war. America is constantly fighting or funding wars, and the images on TVs do little to express how ugly wars are to the places where they take place. By setting the bloodshed in American streets it helps to awaken the viewer to the atrocities that are committed in the name of war, and how awful it must be to experience it.

A strong, complex message combined stunning photography and brilliant acting (Kiki delivers another perfect performance) make Civil War one of the best films in this still young year.

SIFF 2023

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After taking 2022 off for personal reasons, I have purchased my first (non-digital only) full series pass to my local film festival, SIFF2023. Over the 2 ½ week runtime of the festival, I watched 33 features and 1 short in person along with another 11 features and 5 shorts online as part of the virtual fest. In lieu of full reviews for all films (which would take me months), I wanted to share my quick thoughts on everything that I saw.

Past Lives (Dir. Celine Song)

As beautiful as it is made out to be, Past Lives explores the space between platonic and romantic relations. It ponders what could have been and romanticizes the past while accepting that the present reality can also be beautiful. For her first time behind the camera, Celine Song possesses a preternatural instinct for creating an emotionally devastating piece of cinema. The closing seconds of the film were some of the most tear-jerking seconds of cinema in recent memory. I left the theater ugly crying all the way to the after party.

★★★★★

Retreat (Dir. Leon Schwitter)

An inauspicious start to the first proper day of the film festival, Retreat was beautifully shot but lacking substance. A little character motivation from the father besides, “things are bad” would have gone a long way. The ending was significantly darker than I was expecting and left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

★½

Angry Annie (Dir. Blandine Lenoir)

In the wake of the overturning of Roe, a slew of abortion related historical dramas have come out. Angry Annie is a solid outing in that undertaking with a stellar performance by Laure Calamy as the titular woman. And while it falls a little to trap of telling over showing in its later moments, it’s still a wonderful timely telling of a story that needs to be told at this point in time.

★★★

King Coal (Dir. Elaine McMillion Sheldon)

A documentary on the cultural significance of coal to the Appalachia region, and the hole that the decreased reliance on the fossil fuel has on the people who live and work there. By focusing on a pair of young girls who are seeing the world around them change as quickly as they are, King Coal stays grounded in a unique perspective.

★★★½

The Night of the 12th (Dir. Dominik Moll)

The multiple César winning The Night of the 12th is an intriguing police procedural about an enigma of a real-life case. The film is well acted and keeps viewers on the edge of their seat as each additional ex-boyfriend appears more guilty than the last. While the film was very good, I don’t believe it lives up to the award winning hype.

★★★

The Eight Mountains (Dir. Felix van Groeningen)

The beautiful Cannes winner tells the story of two male friends who’s destiney is tied together in the mountains around where they met as children. The film had the best cinematography of the festival, but its two-and-a-half-hour runtime was longer than necessary and the film declined to end at many natural concluding spots.

★★½

Harka (Dir. Lotfy Nathan)

Harka was a very dark portrayal of poverty in Tunisia. Really strong design decisions stood out in this dirty drama. The filthiness of Ali’s (Adam Bessa) single shirt and construction zone turned one room home created the depressing tone for the film. The ending was exactly what it had to be, but the added surrealism to the moment sells the film.

★★★

Falcon Lake (Dir. Charlotte Le Bon)

Falcon Lake presents its traditional coming of age story as if it were a horror film. Editing and score decisions amplify this decision, and the horror aesthetic works well for the adolescent story as that time can feel like a horror movie at the time. The young Joseph Engel and Sara Montpetit put in solid performances and sell the mysteries of adolescence.

★★★★

Year of the Fox (Dir. Megan Griffiths)

A rough first outing with a really stilted screenplay and dialogue left this coming-of-age film feeling hollow. The voice over from Ivy (Sarah Jeffery) was exceptionally detrimental to the film. I unfortunately have very little positive to say about the film, but I know others enjoyed it so take that as you will.

★

Filip (Dir. Michal Kwiecinski)

With a stellar lead performance by Erk Kulm as the titular Filip at the center of it, Filip was a great WWII drama that focused on the life of a Jewish Pole living undercover in a Nazi occupied hotel. The film takes a unique look at WWI by focusing on the life of people livening under occupation but not in the camps.

★★★

And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine (Dir. Axel Danielson)

A documentary about the power of cameras and media. And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine is filled with intriguing imagery, though the message of the film gets a little blurred. The film becomes less about the power of the camera and more about the power of televised fascism.

★★½

Passages (Dir. Ira Sachs)

Ira Sachs continues to be an enigma to me. I have wanted to like all his films, and I have never disliked any of them, but I have also yet to feel a real connection to one. Passages was no different, as the sex filled, love triangle drama was intriguing if not engrossing. The complexities of being a bisexual man exploring sex with women for the first time in years makes for a solid story; it just didn’t resonate with me.

★★½

Until Branches Bend (Dir. Sophie Jarvis)

This Erin Brockovich story lives entirely on the lead performance of Grace Glowicki as Robin, a woman who finds a beetle inside a peach and creates an uproar over it. Glowicki is wonderful in the film, and she manages to encapsulate the uncertainty of the reality she lives in when the tow around her starts to gaslight her on what she saw.

★★★

Monica (Dir. Andrea Pallaoro)

The first of three trans related films I went out of my way to see explores a trans woman’s connection to her mother even years after abandonment. By staying hidden throughout her visit Monica (Trace Lysette) is allowed a small amount of closure, but the distance never closes in a way that hits close to home.

★★★½

A House in Jerusalem (Dir. Muayad Alayan)

A ghost story that isn’t scary and a pro-Palestine narrative that is completely buried, A House in Jerusalem misses the mark on most axes.

★½

Matria (Dir. Álvaro Gago Díaz)

Matria reminded me of a Dardenne Brothers film. A story of a working-class woman forced to endure extreme circumstances but still finds a way to preserver. The moments of joy she allows herself while the world around her crashes is the highlight of the film.

★★★½

Motherland (Dir. Hanna Badziaka and Alexander Mihalkovich)

Two very different documentaries combined into one messy one, Motherland firstly tries to tell the story of bullying in the Belarusian army, but through lack of access to any of the violent acts resorts to additionally focusing on a group of boys partying after being enlisted but before entering the army. The two stories don’t mesh and make for a confusing 90 minutes.

★★

The Blue Caftan (Dir. Maryam Touzani)

Breathtakingly beautiful, The Blue Caftan lives in closeups in soft focus of the three lead actors Lubna Azabal, Saleh Bakri, and Ayoub Missioui along with longing shots of the gorgeous fabrics and threads used to make the handmade caftans. What is obsessively a love triangle story is filled with love and adoration between all three characters. The Blue Caftan is destined to go down as one of the year’s finest films.

★★★★½

Hole in the Head (Dir. Dean Kavanagh)

My one walk out of the festival, Hole in the Head attempted to be Dean Kavanagh’s version of My Winnipeg, but without the style and skill of a Guy Maddin, the film rends itself unwatchable.

½

Next Sohee (Dir. July Jung)

The story of a young, South Korean woman who kills herself under the pressure of an externship at a call center and the woman detective who follows her case, Next Sohee plays out as two separate stories stapled together. While each are excellent on their own, the combining of the two was a little inelegant.

★★★

Confessions of a Good Samaritan (Dir. Penny Lane)

Penny Lane’s documentaries are always an enjoyable, highly stylized bit of fun and Confessions is no different. Her most personal film to date perfectly captures her neurosis as she goes through the process of donating a kidney to a stranger. Funny and well edited Lane continues to be a director to seek out.

★★★½

When it Melts (Dir. Veerle Baetens)

The darkest film of the festival, When it Melts explores the long-lasting effects of childhood trauma. By cutting back and forth between Eva as an adult (Charlotte De Bruyne) and a child (Rosa Marchant) Veerle Baetens tells a twisted story that can only end in one way and that way is devastating.

★★★

Other People’s Children (Dir. Rebecca Zlotowski)

A loving tale of a woman who becomes attached to her boyfriend’s young daughter; Other People’s Children is heartwarming. Virginie Efirais excellent asRachel the women in question, and her connection not just to the young Leila, but all the young people in her life make her the ideal mother just without a child of her own. My only complaint is that the film could have used another round of editing, the epilogue in particular either needed to be cut or more flushed out beforehand.

★★★½

L’ immensità (Dir. Emanuele Crialese)

Penélope Cruz as the mother of a trans boy, what’s not to love? Unfortunately quite a lot as L’ immensità just didn’t quite hit. With three out of nowhere musical numbers, and an occasional glimpse into fantasy, this film didn’t know what it wanted to be and failed for that.

★½

Plan 75 (Dir. Chie Hayakawa)

Set in near future Japan, Plan 75 proposes a world where the elderly can choose to be euthanized to help remedy a society that has aged. Given that premise, the film explores it from three viewpoints, Michi (Chieko Baishô) a woman considering signing up for the program, Hiromu (Hayato Isomura) a man signing people up for the program, and Maria (Stefanie Arianne) a woman working at a facility. The film plays with the moral implications of the program in a way that doesn’t judge but makes you think.

★★★★

20,000 Species of Bees (Dir. Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren)

It may have taken me a few days to realize it, but 20,000 Species of Bees was my favorite film of the festival. Whether or not it is the best film of the festival may be up for debate, but nothing hit me personally. Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren manages to perfectly capture the mix of confusion and gender bliss that a young trans person experiences while figuring out who they are. Sofía Otero plays the 8-year-old Lucía beautifully. I’m starting to tear up just thinking about the film I love it so much.

★★★★½

Sonne (Dir. Kurdwin Ayub)

This film baffled me. It centered around an Iraqi teen Yesmin (Melina Benli) living in Austira. She and her friends do teen like things include making a viral video of them singing Losing My Religion by R.E.M.. Weirdly though the film introduces plot points throughout the film without ever following up on them. Near the end I finally started getting on board with the all vibes no plot follow through but it ended before I could entirely get it.

★★

Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia (Dir. Julien Chheng and Jean-Christophe Roger)

An absolute delight, the sequel to 2012’s Ernest and Celestine has just as much if not more heart. The bear and mouse pair get into more adventures in Ernest’s hometown of Gibberitia where music has been banned, and obviously that means the score and diegetic music are the highlights of the film.

★★★★

Let the River Flow (Dir. Ole Giæver)

Let the River flow is the tale of Ester (Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen), a Norwegian passing Sámi woman who embraces her indigenous identity to join a resistance against a dam that threatens Sámi land. A moving tale against colonialism and about finding power in who you are.

★★★½

Dreamin’ Wild (Dir. Bill Pohlad)

Bill Pohlad, the Love & Mercy director returns for another music biopic, this time about the Emerson Brothers. Headlined by Casey Affleck who is as sure a bet for a great performance as there is in Hollywood today, the film captures the unbelievable story of the two brothers as they learn their 30-year-old album has become one of the hottest tickets in the music industry.

★★★½

Blue Jean (Dir. Georgia Oakley)

Lesbianism in the era of Margaret Thatcher, Blue Jean tells the story of a gay gym teacher who while in a loving relationship finds the need to keep things hidden to keep her job. When she sees one of her students at the gay bar with her, she needs to balance being a good gay role model with protecting herself. This dichotomy is perfectly realized in the excellent film by Georgia Oakley.

★★★½

The Hummingbird (Dir. Francesca Archibugi)

The first half of The Hummingbird showed great promise from director Francesca Archibugi. The editing between timelines was seamless and orchestrated wonderfully to create a coherent story despite taking place in half a dozen eras. Unfortunately, the second half introduced more plotlines that were not as interesting, and the tight editing fell away.

★★½

Time Traveling Through Time (Dir. Ryan Ward)

A comedic, short homage to Chris Marker’s La Jetée is more interesting in premise than in practice.

★½

LOLA (Dir. Andrew Legge)

My final in person film of the festival was a packed house to see this black and white science fiction. The women lead super geniuses who invent a form of time travel and use it to change the outcome of WWII was unique and a great while not the absolute best film of the festival was a fun way to close it out.

★★★

26.2 to Life (Dir. Christine Yoo)

Rehabilitiation stories are something I’m always open to receiving, and 26.2 to Life does a great job of humanizing the inmates at San Quentin State Prison. Christine Yoo uses the running program as a gateway to investigate the lives of the men who use it as an escape and a way to stay connected to life.

★★½

Satan Wants You (Dir. Steve J. Adams)

An intriguing documentary on the satanic panic scare and its source – The 1980 memoir Michelle Remembers, Satan Wants You as a rather cut and dry talking head documentary, but the subject matter is what draws you in.

★★½

Inglorious Liaisons (Dir. Chloé Alliez)

A unique depiction of teenagers (all portrayed by painted electric plugs and on/off switches). The short portrays what it’s like to be a closeted lesbian when everyone around you pushes you to get together with the cute boy.

★★★

Now I’m in the Kitchen (Dir. Yana Pan)

A very short sketchy animation about a woman remembering the impact her mother had on her through the catalyst of the kitchen.

★★★

The Voice in the Hollow (Dir. Miguel Ortega)

Very interesting art style, but a pretty bland story.

★½

Europe by Bidon (Dir. Samuel Albaric and Thomas Trichet)

A rather boring animated short of a man trying to immigrate to Europe.

★½

Pipes (Dir. Kilian Feusi, Jessica Meier, and Sujanth Ravichandran)

A very short, animated film of a bear fixing pipes in an underground gay club. Funny and sex positive.

★★½

Egghead & Twinkie (Dir. Sarah Kambe Holland)

Zoomer Scott Pilgrim but make it gay. I enjoyed Egghead & Twinkie substantially more than I thought I would. Not all the sequences worked as well as others, but it was still a fun coming of age story with a lot of style and a lot of heart. A great promise at what Zoomer cinema will look like.

★★★

Hanging Gardens (Dir. Ahmed Yassin Aldaradji)

What if Lars and the Real Girl, were about a very young Iraqi boy. That’s essentially the premise of Hanging Gardens where the young As’ad finds a sex doll and sells the use of it for money while slowly becoming over protective of his findings.

★★★

Bad Press (Dir. Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler)

An eye-opening documentary about something I knew nothing about (the lack of freedom of press in most Native American territories). The film follows a story of one papers struggle after their nation repealed the freedom of press act.

★★★

Adolfo ( Dir. Sofía Auza)

Everyone wants to make the next Before Sunrise, and few people succeed. Adolfo is an overly quirky version of the trope does not end up as one of the better ones.

★½

A Letter from Helga (Dir. Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir)

A Letter from Helga is a very slow film, and while that’s not a death knell for me – many of my favorite films would qualify as slow cinema – If you can’t create the right mood the slowness becomes boring. Unfortunately, Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir’s latest outing falls into the boring camp.

★★½

Le Coyote (Dir. Katherine Jerkovic)

A man agrees to take on the son of his heroin addicted, estranged daughter while she goes to rehab in this quiet, understated film. Very slow and very quiet to the point of it being distracting watching at home as pat of SIFF’s virtual festival.

★★

Douglas Sirk – Hope as in Despair (Dir. Roman Huben)

An extremely dry documentary about the renowned melodrama filmmaker, Douglas Sirk. I love Sirk and am interested in learning more about him, but even with that I struggled to pay attention to the film it was so barren of style.

★½

Snow and the Bear (Dir. Selcen Ergun)

In a part of Turkey where winter never seems to end a nurse Aslı (Merve Dizdar) arrives in a small town where the local doctor is unable to reach and begins her compulsory service. The film is a perfect watch on a scorching hot summer day as director Selcen Ergun captures the cold in a way that will chill anyone to the bone.

★★★

20 Days in Mariupol (Dir. Mstyslav Chernov)

Horrific and gruesome, 20 Days in Mariupol uses its unprecedented access to war torn Ukraine to create a moving documentary. That said, outside of proximity, the documentary doesn’t bring anything new to the medium. Still a miraculous story to tell.

★★★