In early 2017, I saw and reviewed Moonlight – Barry Jenkins’ remarkable coming of age story about sexuality, poverty and masculinity. Almost two years later, to the day, I am sitting down to review the directors’ next film, If Beale Street Could Talk. American movie romance doesn’t come much more sublime than this. Director Barry Jenkins … Continue reading
With less than 2,000 residents, Christmas Island – an Australian territory located in the Indonesian Ocean – has a detention centre where thousands of individuals are held indefinitely. As well as these facilities, the island is also known for its annual red crab migration, in which over 40 million crabs make their journey to the … Continue reading
2018 has been a rather disappointing year for my personal cinema expeditions. With the exception of The Shape of Water, award season was a collection of deflated disappointments with the likes of Lady Bird, Three Billboards and I, Tonya all leaving me a little let down in their mere adequacy. The most unexpected treats of … Continue reading
A year of countless trips to the cinema involves many a disappointment, with 2018 proving no less cinematically woeful than others. This year, duds were released not only on the big screen but on VOD platforms too. Now, audiences have the (dis)pleasure of being bored to death, angered and let down by new releases from … Continue reading
With astonishing access to a truly horrifying issue, A Woman Captured is as astounding as a directorial debut gets. Formerly a film school student in Budapest, Bernadett Tuza-Ritter embarks on an emotional journey with house slave Marish, who has resided with an abusive family for over a decade. Tuza-Ritter’s access is the most remarkable element of the … Continue reading
Sean McAllister returned to his hometown of Hull in 2017 after being appointed Creative Director of City of Culture. Residing back with his parents after years spent all over the world making award winning documentaries, McAllister now faced a new kind of challenge. Over the course of the year McAllister would attempt to engage his … Continue reading
Crystal Moselle’s follow up to debut The Wolfpack is being praised as a docudrama-hybrid; a scripted, fictional narrative woven into the director’s real-life experiences with an all-female Manhattan skate collective. Loner Camille, lives an isolated existence across the water in Long Island. In the film’s opening minutes Camille is already in hospital after an eye-watering skating accident. … Continue reading
A collaboration between old friends from art school, Matangi / Maya / M.I.A. is not your average music doc. Most obviously because the music career of Sri Lankan born and Brixton bred rapper M.I.A. is only one component in a film exploring her beginnings, her inspirations, her activism and her global success in the early 2000s … Continue reading
Dramatised non-fiction is old territory for director Bart Layton whose first feature documentary The Imposter included tense re-enactment. His latest work takes things even further in an attempt to intertwine documentary and drama even more tightly. American Animals, based on a shambolic real-life heist at an American University in 2004, is for the most part a … Continue reading
Adapted from Emily M. Danforth’s book, The Miseducation of Cameron Post is the second feature from director Desiree Akhavan. In 2014, Akhavan explored the complexities of a modern woman’s sexuality (simultaneously winning over indie film audiences) in Appropriate Behaviour – a film which refreshingly focused on bisexuality – more specifically in conflict with family heritage, culture and … Continue reading
