★★★☆☆ A man sits alone in a room with a notepad and begins to scribble down his own voiceover. He only writes on one page and seems to always be starting at the top. His thoughts will be meticulous and he will show a certain expertise. When he’s finished writing he will place the pen on the table, neatly aligned with the pad.
★★☆☆☆ Bereavement, mental health, the threadbare US social welfare system and homelessness are the heavy topics that British-born director Deborah Richards tackles in her debut feature. Unfortunately, their worthy but superficial and somewhat incoherent presentation means that Move Me No Mountain is an emotionally and thematically inert experience.
★★★☆☆ Sometimes, it’s tough being really skilled at one thing in particular. Having flown out the blocks with two supremely good, bonafide hit horror films (Hereditary, Midsommar), writer and director Ari Aster had to make a departure to avoid being pigeon-holed as a genre specialist.
★★★★☆ Can love sustain in a relationship if it is not reciprocal; indeed is such a thing even love? With One Fine Morning, celebrated French director Mia Hansen-Løve presents complementary accounts of infatuation, love, and loss in a nuanced, moving study of the ways that love can sustain and consume us.
★★★★★ Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours Trilogy stars Juliette Binoche, Julie Delpy and Irene Jacob in three of the most revered pieces of European cinema ever made. Named after the colours of the French flag (Blue, White and Red), the films are loosely based on the three political ideals of the French Republic; Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
Over the past two decades, the gaming industry has seen a significant rise in popularity to the point where it has now become a $184 billion industry. Gaming is a pop culture institution, with video games and gamification influencing everything from entertainment to the corporate world.
★★★★★ A sporting biopic unlike any other, Martin Scorsese’s astonishing masterpiece Raging Bull is surely one of the greatest cinematic achievements of all time. Although many rightly claim it to be the greatest sports movie of all time, Raging Bull’s praise should not merely be confined to one genre, as it is unquestionably one of the finest pieces ever committed to film.
★★★★★ Sent on a mission to establish a parish in a remote Icelandic settlement, Danish priest Lucas (Elliott Crosset Hove) must brave harsh conditions, strange customs and existential dread in Hlynur Pálmason’s 19th century Nordic epic. Godland is the Icelandic director’s most accomplished work to date.
This week sees the return of Dungeons & Dragons to the scene, the latest in a storied history of trying to bring the beloved pen-and-paper role-playing game to the wider world via cinema or television. It’s safe to say that the franchise has a mixed legacy in this department and fans have been understandably hesitant to get excited about this latest entry.
Movies about gambling and the casino world at large generate thrill, excitement, and drama simply because there’s too much at risk. While Ocean’s Eleven, Rounders and Casino are some of the most popular American productions, the topic of casino heists and high-stakes games has been explored in numerous films from all over the world.
★★★★★ Filmmaker Amanda Kramer’s latest is a surreal, erotic, and often romantic vision of nonconformity shot through the lens of classic Hollywood and inspired by the cinema of Kenneth Anger. In politics and the media, opportunistic hate-mongers whip up bigotry against gender non-conformity, while everyone in contemporary cinema is beautiful but no one is horny.
★★★★★ Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer are a little-known writing and directing partnership based in Brooklyn, New York. But their standing is due a considerable elevation on the strength of God’s Creatures, a film that wields its simple premise with devastating impact.
Films extending their names across a variety of media is not a new phenomenon. Capitalising on the popularity of a product by diversifying related releases is simple business sense, and that’s as true now as ever. There is a newer part of this reality, however, in that modern movies are increasingly embracing the digital and mobile multimedia path.
★★★★☆ Putting her talents behind the camera, Chilean actor-turned-director Manuela Martelli’s debut feature is a gripping study of paranoia during the early years of the Pinochet regime. As historical noir, Martelli’s film is thrilling, but as a document of the comforts of complicity and the terror of resistance, 1976 is visceral.
★★★★☆ Having horrified audiences most recently with 2020’s Possessor, Brandon Cronenberg – son of David – is about to make an even bigger arterial splash with Infinity Pool, a lysergic hymn to ritual bloodletting and spoilt Westerners who enjoy languorous holidays in other people’s misery. The film stars Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth.