The World to Come, the second feature from Norwegian filmmaker Mona Fastvold (The Sleepwalker), is a plodding meditation on love and grief that is salvaged from mediocrity by the palpable chemistry between its lead actors. Still, the film doesn’t offer much that is fresh of exciting and rehashes some tired lesbian period piece tropes.
Fresh for October’s spooky movie season, Thomas Robert Lee’s The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw is an eerie period-piece horror film about a witch and her daughter’s unnerving control over the fate and sanity of a nearby rural village. Effectively atmospheric and compellingly acted, The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw seems to strive to ride the coattails of Robert Egger’s magnum opus The Witch, though it evidently falls short of that mark.
My experience with the minimalist work of Kelly Reichardt is limited. I had disliked her drab period piece Meek’s Cutoff, but I seemed to be in the minority; I gave her the benefit of the doubt. But after watching her latest drama First Cow, another dull yet highly acclaimed period piece, I’m sticking by my guns but I’m not so forgiving.
Sometimes, the most reassuring type of storytelling is the kind that unexpectedly reels you in with material you formally thought was uninteresting. Such is the case for Claire McCarthy’s Ophelia. As a viewer with limited knowledge (and interest) of the classic works of William Shakespeare, I couldn’t help but be swept up in the characters and drama of McCarthy’s reenvisioning.
By: Jolie Featherstone Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien is a polished, but reserved, Edwardian period piece that explores the early life of J. R. R. Tolkien, famed author of The Lord of the Rings. From a childhood fraught with loss to serving in in the First World War as a young adult, the film draws connections between Tolkien’s real-life experiences and the lore and legends he created in his works.
Across the past couple decades, Armando Iannucci has repeatedly shown himself to be one of the most important voices working in comedy. Whether we are discussing his hand in the creation of Alan Partridge or his blatantly political work in The Thick of It and Veep, Iannucci has shown that he has his hand on the comedic pulse of whatever age he may be in. Now, he’s decided to take on a new experiment: a…
From making a dark comedy about a premeditated school shooting to slightly deceiving NASA while making a faux-documentary within a faux-documentary, it’s safe to claim that filmmaker Matt Johnson is a bit of a renegade. But similar to his storytelling innovation in The Dirties, Johnson finds a new way to twist old tales in Operation Avalanche.
By: Addison Wylie A great deal of unease works in filmmaker Cate Shortland’s favour. Her dramatic period piece Lore always feels restless. Characters – young and old – are constantly looking for stability and safety and the environments are always changing. That’s not to hint that Lore is inconsistent with a short attention span. It’s a compliment that Shortland has found the perfect unsettling tone to allow all her elements to work on. Lore shows…
