Festivals
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Cannes 2017: April’s Daughter review
★★★☆☆ April is the cruelest mum in Michel Franco’s Un Certain Regard entry April’s Daughter. The Mexican director and Cannes favourite has produced another disturbing character study, following Tim Roth’s obsessive nurse in Chronic which screened a mere two years ago.April’s Daughter stars Pedro Almodóvar regular Emma Suarez as April, an estranged mother who after…
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Cannes 2017: Wind River review
★★★☆☆ Taylor Sheridan is a wonderful screenwriter in his own right, as the startling thrillers Sicario and Hell or High Water both contest. However, he’s a terrible writer of film titles. From the idiomatic blandness of Hell or High Water to the latest flatulence of Wind River.Fortunately, the latter – his debut as a director…
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Cannes 2017: 120 Beats Per Minute review
★★★☆☆ ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) was an activist group set up in New York to draw attention campaign for those impacted by AIDS. They were a pressure group who specialised in public and well-publicised acts of civil disobedience. The Paris branch of ACT UP is the subject of writer-director Robin Campillo’s new…
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Cannes 2017: Wonderstruck review
★★☆☆☆ “Please do not touch the exhibits,” say the signs in most museums. In competition at Cannes, Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck is a touchy-feely cabinet of wonders which occasionally enraptures but also drags, never quite achieving the promise of its title.It’s 1977 and Ben (Oakley Fegley), a young child who has recently lost his mother, lives…
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Cannes 2017: Our picks of the lineup
The red carpet is being vacuumed, the Croisette prepped – new anti- terrorist bollards a grim reminder of the times – and a young Claudia Cardinale dances exuberantly above the Palais du Cinéma. Everything is almost ready for the celebration of the 70th Cannes Film Festival.The lineup is rich and deep, indicative of a generational…
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Cannes 2017: Palme d’Or lineup announced
The full competition lineup for this year’s 70th Cannes Film Festival (17-28 May) was announced in Paris earlier this morning. Kicking off the proceedings will be Ismael’s Ghosts, the new film from respected French director Arnaud Desplechin.Meanwhile, highlights of this year’s Palme d’Or race include new films from international heavyweights Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Bong…
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Berlin 2017: On Body and Soul review
★★★☆☆ Opening on a woodland as two deer search through the snow for food, it’s clear from the start On Body and Soul isn’t a conventional love story. Their eyes meet and the stag wanders over to the doe, laying his head on her neck, an act of warmth and compassion in an otherwise cold,…
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Berlin 2017: Ana, Mon Amour review
★★★☆☆ Child’s Pose director and Golden Bear-winner Cãlin Peter Netzer returns to the Berlinale with Ana, Mon Amour, a tale of love, addiction and the memories of failed romances that linger and won’t be chased away. When we first meet, Ana (Diana Cavallioti) and Toma (Mircea Postelnicu) they’re at the preliminary stage of their relationship,…
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Berlin 2017: Adriana’s Pact review
★★★★☆ “Every family has their secrets,” claims Chilean director Lissette Orozco whilst introducing her debut film Adriana’s Pact – but what happens when these secrets get out? A deeply personal documentary about guilt and culpability, we see what happens when the personal and the political become inextricably entwined. Do the wounds of the past heal? And…
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Berlin 2017: When the Day Had No Name review
★★★☆☆ In 2012, the bodies of four teenage boys were discovered on the outskirts of the Macedonian capital of Skopje. They had left home the previous morning to go on a fishing trip, but were found lying on the bank of the lake with bullet holes in their heads. Teona Strugar Mitevska’s When the Day…
