As the youngest child in a large family of Iranian immigrants, Leila (Layla Mohammadi) has always felt like she hasn’t lived up to expectations; especially her often distracted mother Shireen (Niousha Noor). In her current years as a young adult, Leila has felt more distance grown between her and her mom. And as an expectant mother after a one-night-stand with an eccentric actor (Tom Byrne), Leila only anticipates the worse.
Canadian filmmaker Jeremy LaLonde is becoming the go-to guy to find humour in despicable people. After taking a brief break to make an experimental drama (Ashgrove), LaLonde finds himself easing back into his comedic element with Daniel’s Gotta Die, a dark comedy about an inheritance-hungry, ne’er-do-well family being reigned in by a goodnatured sibling.
Silver Dollar Road, the latest documentary from Oscar nominatee Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro), sets out to make an example of the Reels’ family. Currently residing in Adams Creek, North Carolina on valuable property sought out by developers, members of the Reels family recount the harassment and drawn out legal battle that they’ve experienced trying to keep their ownership and generational ties to their land.
Finding a nice balance between fun and learning, Butterfly Tale chronicles the animated adventure of a flutter of monarch butterflies as they migrate to Mexico.
News of Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel had me excited. Previously impressing me with her strengths as a documentarian with Ukraine Is Not a Brothel, Green would be drawing inspiration from another documentary that I really admired – 2016’s Hotel Coolgardie.
In Fair Play, Emily (Phoebe Dynevor of Netflix’s Bridgerton) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich of Solo: A Star Wars Story and Cocaine Bear) are financial analysts who are discreetly dating but individually on the offence at the workplace. The hedge fund they work for is highly competitive, but unprofessional when dealing with internal matters. An open promotion heard through the grapevine makes everyone more sharp and vicious, but it’s Emily who is eyed for the position….
There’s an unwritten rule that suggests that the first few minutes of a movie are the most crucial. This isn’t a knock on shortened attention spans. As much as we would like to reward patience at every moment, viewers can usually gauge their interest within these initial scenes – it makes or breaks a movie.
She Came to Me has the feel of a 2000s-era quirky indie without feeling like a pandering throwback. The characters are eccentric weirdos, the filmmaking is aware of its cleverness, the situational comedy is purposely absurd but meaningful, and it’s all in the name of romance.
