All My Puny Sorrows, directed by One Week’s Michael McGowan, is cut from similar cloth as last year’s outstanding, sad drama Our Friend. Carried by a small yet mighty cast who are all approaching sensitive material under the guidance of a cautious filmmaker, All My Puny Sorrows tracks how deep mental illness can run within a family’s dynamic, and how it affects its members.
Mothering Sunday is, at least, commendable for the swings it takes. Instead of following a typical period drama formula, director Eva Husson (Bang Gang [A Modern Love Story]) and screenwriter Alice Birch (Lady Macbeth) explore a titillating affair through several time-jumping perspectives. At first, it’s frustrating to keep up with the pace that’s further developing the romance between housemaid Jane Fairchild (Assassination Nation’s Odessa Young) and elite gentleman Paul Sheringham (Josh O’Connor of God’s Own…
By: Trevor Chartrand In this feature directorial debut of Thyrone Tommy, Learn to Swim focuses on the failing relationship between a stubborn jazz saxophone player Dezi (Thomas Antony Olajide) and an up-and-coming singer, Selma (Emma Ferreira). The film plays with time and takes place both before and after the relationship has failed. I hesitate to compare the film to 2009’s 500 Days of Summer, simply because Learn to Swim takes a much more sophisticated, and…
In Jockey, director/co-writer Clint Bentley offers audiences a reflective perspective from the eyes of horse jockey Jackson Silva (Clifton Collins Jr.). Silva is respected around the track but, otherwise, he’s a reclusive athlete who is becoming a little long in the tooth to be continuing with his sport. He encounters increasing issues with his body, both from past injuries and aging, but his physical weaknesses haven’t broke his determination. Even when he’s faced with the…
Parallel Mothers is seemingly about a jaw-dropping, life-changing mishap between two pregnant single strangers, Janis (Penélope Cruz) and Ana (Milena Smit), who give birth on the same day. The new mothers exchange information and part ways, only to be reunited months later after Janis uncovers the secret. Ana, feeling confident and independent yet abandoned, is offered hospitality by Janis, who is struggling to break the news to Ana and also dealing with her own strife…
Few documentaries have moved me like Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America has. It’s an unflinching breakdown of American history and an empathetic reach to those who have suffered through it. Lawyer Jeffery Robinson (who last appeared in 2020’s brilliant doc The Fight) guides us every step of the way.
Filmmaker Sean Baker follows up his American masterpiece The Florida Project, a drama about a helpless community living on the fringe of fantasy, with Red Rocket, another winner that dabbles in the same wheelhouse but broadening its scope to a rural population. And much like how The Florida Project found humour in innocence, Red Rocket finds humour in ignorance.
By: Jolie Featherstone By beautifully capturing the stories of American communities that are rarely seen on screen, Sean Baker has the makings of a modern auteur.
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (a title that sounds like misheard lyrics to Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”) is specific enough to be a filmmaker’s vision. The problem is writer/director Radu Jude hasn’t found a cohesive or accessible way to deliver that vision to audiences.
