Another one for the all cops are bastards file. Prison 77 is a fictionalised story based on the real events that took place in Spain during the transition from fascism to democracy. With the prospect of amnesty for political prisoners on the horizon, the ordinary prisoners demand it cover them as well. After all, what…
During a traumatic event, your body switches into fight or flight mode, adrenaline and cortisol coursing. Higher brain functions shut down, including the processing of long-term memory. Which is why people who’ve been through terrible events can sometimes have no memory of it, or only fragments, or can’t remember things until long after. This part…
Daniel is a film about a heavy subject but it handles with sensitivity, thought and empathy. After the suicide of a young lesbian in his religious rural community, local gay artist Daniel tries to organise a tribute to her life, but meets with resistance and prejudice. It is based on a true story. The titular…
The opening scene of this film tells you everything you need to know about the main character, Howard, and his relationship with his daughter, Grace. She drives out to his house in the arse-end of nowhere, bringing with her a cake for his birthday. He sits in the musty dark of his livingroom, doing the…
Holy shit. The blurb for this movie describes it as nerve-shredding, and boy does it deliver. So tense. Not been on the edge of my seat like that since watching Land of Mine. How To Blow Up A Pipeline is about, funnily enough, people blowing up a pipeline. A group of young people from disparate…
How to sell this film… It has Colin Mochrie in a leather chest harness. The End of Sex is about Josh and Emma, a middle-aged middle-class couple, who after 10 years of marriage, are experiencing bed death. A week away from their kids for the first time makes them realise that it’s been a long…
Punch is the story of Jamie, a boy in a backwater, small town in New Zealand who is training as a boxer under the tutelage of his alcoholic father, and who has a coming-of-age romance with a local openly queer Maori boy, Whetu. I came to this film wanting to like it so much. Queer…
The Ordinaries is one of the most original films I’ve seen in years. In life, there are Main Characters, Supporting Characters, and Outtakes. Paula is in training for her exam to see if she will be a Main Character like her deceased father, or be relegated to the sidelines like her Supporting Character mother. All…
Cards on the table, I’m maybe not the best person to review this film. Back in my 20s all my pals got into reading Haruki Murakami, and were like, “You have to read him, you’ll love it!” And I read some, and was like, “Eh… I don’t like this guy.” They were appalled, like I…
From the director of powerful and nuanced short film Expensive Shit, comes Adura Onashile’s first feature film, Girl. An emotional portrait of a young girl and her mother, living in a Glasgow high-rise. Firstly, beautiful. Stunning cinematography, you know when a shot can only be described as delicious? Secondly, powerful performances. This isn’t a film…