An intimate portrait of a family still searching for answers 50 years after the suicide of their brother. Marco Bellocchio is a legendary acclaimed filmmaker, with a lifetime of success. However he describes himself and his siblings as sharing an “arid unhappiness” from growing up in a house where they were provided with all the…
So, The Miracle Child is billed as a movie about a wee girl who starts having miracles attributed to her. It’s not, it’s a queer film where the B-plot is headlined instead of the love story. Whether that’s to serve marketing or the mystery of the romance is kind of irrelevant, because once you’re watching…
Jealousy, Italian Style is a dark rom-com about a love triangle that leads to tragedy. With films a full half-century old, and in a different language, there’s always a worry that the comedy may not translate, but with Jealousy, Italian Style the humour is based on the timeless and universal subjects of love, rejection, and…
Blue Eyes is like a noir crime drama meets a cat-and-mouse heist thriller, neither of which it does satisfaction. The thriller element never really has a high-octane action set piece to get excited about, and the bluesy noir style seems superficial without the developed characterisation to give it any emotional weight. They hamper each other…
I love family implosion movies. In The Peacock’s Paradise, grandmother Nena celebrates her birthday with her whole family around her. The film is set almost entirely within her flat, as unspoken tensions rise and long-hidden secrets are revealed. As the characters arrive, you feel the chess board being set. Nena and her husband Umberto have…
The Hole is a film set in the 1960s Italian countryside about a cave being explored for the first time by an academic contingent. First things first. This film is a landscape. It’s not about the people, it’s not a portrait. The entire film the only thing that is subtitled is a piece of television…
Based on the true story of the arrest and interrogation of Pakistani serial killer, Javed Iqbal, this film follows the growing horror as his crimes are uncovered. Iqbal raped and murdered a hundred children, dismembering their bodies and dissolving them in acid, so there wasn’t even remains to return to the families or to identify…
When I saw the title, I never expected a short film so touching and poignant. The filmmaker blends humour and grief, romance and despair, to give this tale of a young guy going through the ordinary highs and lows of growing up, while also contending with the loss of his father. This film is about…
A surreal animated short film about dealing with fatphobia and its damaging internalisation. Managing to be funny and adventurous despite also doing justice to the all-consuming impact physically and mentally of negotiating misogynistic diet culture, it has a healing message. Watch out for goose-stepping arse-angels and an eight-bit fight scene with a Sauron-esque gigantic scale.
Pretty little animated short film using collage and photographs about childhood and remembrances of the past. Upbeat nostalgia made with bright images and punchy music.