Yas overhears recently heartbroken Dom sobbing in the gender-neutral lavatories. Two young strangers, both having had recent break ups, meet. She befriends him as he is about to lunch with his ex and her new boyfriend. She goes along pretending to be his new girlfriend all of which ends in chaos. They cheerfully connect with each other as they move around the sunny streets of south London. A film with street- smart grit and warmth and charm.
(2023). 82 mins. Comedy/romance. English. Dir. Raine Allen-Miller
A gentle, deep drama about two filmmakers, Chris, who is in a relationship with an older man, and Tony, well-known with a big fan base. They go on a working retreat to the island that inspired Ingmar Bergman. While there, Chris wonders whether society would ever allow her to have 9 children from 6 different partners, as Bergman had and shares it as a film idea with Tony.
We begin to see her film as she sees it, with her imaginary actors playing out her script. A film within a film emerges. Tony just wants to go on a Bergman “safari” and be feted by adoring younger fans. Reality and fiction start to blur as tensions increase in the relationship between them. It is a film that gently pokes fun at the great film director, while allowing women to drive the story.
(2021). 112 mins. Swedish (English subtitles). Director Mia Hansen-Love
Tragedy and comedy are paired in this end-of-friendship movie which is at times funny, horrifying and heartbreaking. Two men meet every lunchtime for a drink on this small remote Irish village in the 1920s – Padraic, a simple soul and dairy farmer, and his best friend Colm, a thinker and a fiddle-player. They lead uneventful lives until one day Colm no longer wants to see Padraic. Padraic asks his sister why Colm wouldn’t open the door to him and gets the reply ‘Perhaps he just doesn’t like you no more’ – a joke that soon turns out to be horribly true. This film reunites Brian Gleeson and Colin Farrell of In Bruges fame.
(2022) 114 mins. Golden globe winner. Drama some violence, strong language. English Director Martin McDonagh (of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri fame).
An absorbing and emotional film about adoption, loneliness, a search for identity and the meaning of existence. A 25 year-old French woman returns to Korea, where she was born before being adopted by a French couple, to try to track down her biological parents. During the search, set over an 8 year period, she meets her birth father, moves to Korea, emotionally misuses those who want to get close and begins to discover some aspects of her birth mother, which lead her to question where some of her own cruel behaviours come from. The film explores what makes us who we are, how much is upbringing, how much is genetic? It is sad and yet gripping storytelling.
(2022). 119 mins. English subtitles. Director David Chou. Korean
In her directorial debut Rose Glass has created a very well-crafted horror film; a psychodrama with astute character observation and strong performances by Morfydd Clark and Jennifer Anne Ehle. The film earned a record seventeen nominations at the British Independent Film Awards 2020. Film critic Mark Kermode listed it as his favourite film of 2020, calling it an “electrifying debut”.
At its centre is a troubled young woman, Katie. She is a palliative nurse. We learn something of her own past trauma and find a woman who believes she is guided by God to save her clients’ soul.
(2019) 84 mins. Horror, This film contains sexual and violent scenes. English. Director Rose Glass.
