Do you ever feel like you want to watch more short films, but never really know where to start, which shorts to watch, or where to find them? Or, instead, you do occasionally watch short films, but feel you should watch more? Then this is the perfect little challenge for you!
It wasn’t a stretch for the Sundance Film Festival to include Other People in its opening night lineup. With a plot about a struggling writer returning home to care for his cancer-stricken mother, it ticks about as many indie trope boxes as you can without feeling like an overstuffed mess. Familiarity, however, does not make a film bad, and Other People has a solid backbone that should lift it above comparable films.
One of the most poisonous societal ideals is that of masculinity. There’s nothing wrong with being proud of one’s manhood. But there is much terribly wrong with convincing boys and young men that their masculinity is marked by not showing emotion, never admitting to any abuse they may have experienced, or forcing them into a space where they feel their only option is physical violence versus confronting their rawest emotions.
Edgar Ramírez is electrifying as welterweight boxing champion Roberto Durán in the new movie Hands of Stone. Unfortunately, writer/director Jonathan Jakubowicz’s routinely conceived, routinely executed boxing biopic is a dull canvas for a performance, slashed in such angry red brush strokes. The movie goes the distance, though not as cleanly or directly as we might have wished.
I know nothing of cultural revolution. I’ve only had a taste of the violence and hate-speech that must permeate such events, as the majority of Americans have turned their back on the presidential candidate that spews toned-down versions of such rhetoric. Still, it’s been a strange time, with acquaintances openly asking each other where we are going and what we are doing, with a fear that is barely veiled.
In life there are many roads to travel and sometimes our paths align with perfect strangers that happen to be exactly who we need to run into at that point in our lives. This appears to be the case with Emma (Mela Hudson) and Judy (Tori Hall). They’re two completely different women who’ve led very different lives, but when both find themselves needing to make a trip to Western Massachusetts, they unintentionally become a part of each other’s journey.
Racism in France has been a long-discussed topic within cinema, from Mathieu Kassovitz’s eponymous film La Haine to 2011’s hit comedy Les Intouchables. In recent days Muslim/Arab citizens have been the focus of racial prejudice from the French justice system; Fatima could not come at a better time with its refreshing take on Arab/French culture. Philippe Faucon adds to this conversation with a portrayal of racial tension in France.
Film Inquiry compiles a list of the movies that are opening in cinemas every Tuesday. Opening this week: Morgan, The 9th Life Of Louis Drax, The Light Between Oceans, Zoom, Skiptrace, No Manches Frida and Yoga Hosers.
Watching Frank recently, it occurred to me how often the creative process is shown on-screen, and how frequently this process is shown in a hackneyed, unsubtle way. Too often directors attempt to over-romanticise the writing process, and feature endless montages of their artists receiving some form of divine inspiration, as if writing was truly that exciting and easy. Admittedly, showing such a process on-screen is problematic.
Like much of writer/director Taika Waititi’s other work, Hunt for the Wilderpeople finds humor in asking us to laugh at its characters. They all have some ridiculous traits, and we’re free to have fun at their expense. Some of them are delusional, some of them are myopic, and some of them totally lack self-consciousness.
The universal praise and frenetic bidding war that enveloped the Sundance premiere of Manchester by the Sea was hard to miss. That Amazon (with Roadside Attractions) won out with a promised theatrical run and awards season push only heightened its profile, placing it squarely at the forefront of industry-changing conversations about the role of streaming companies in film production and distribution. Amazon publicly states that they’re targeting a void with the films they acquire, providing a home for quality, non-mainstream films that have been suffering since many indie labels closed their doors.
Chevalier is the uncomplicated story of six men on a diving expedition in the Aegean sea, and how their competitiveness is almost the undoing of all of them. Named as Best Film at the London Film Festival in 2015, it is an extraordinary film and one that is unmissable for anyone who enjoys a deeply disturbing comedy. Despite having no female characters, Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Greek comedy speaks from an authoritative feminist voice, forcing hyper-masculinity under the microscope with hysterical consequences.
Kubo and the Two Strings is a genuine masterpiece. The word “masterpiece” might be used carelessly and far too often these days when discussing contemporary movies. At the least, Kubo has fulfilled the conventional definition of “masterpiece” no matter how semantically satiated the word has become, if not entirely forging a new meaning altogether.
Like a cat, Louis Drax keeps surviving potentially fatal accidents. The latest is a fall from a seaside cliff, and while the boy languishes in a coma, the uncertain events leading up to the incident puts his parent’s culpability into question. His long history of accidents doesn’t reflect well on them, and the open-minded doctor treating the boy in The 9th Life of Louis Drax just might push himself too far to find the truth.
It seems strange that a body of work which has largely focused on the female experience without pontificating, should prove to be so contentious. And yet, Sofia Coppola’s viewers seem to fall largely within two extremes: the devoted and the apathetic.