“Love is a spark Lost in the dark Too soon Too soon…” – Speak Low Darkness. Two bass notes. A broken piano chord. Brightening lights slowly reveal a car with two occupants pulling towards an armed checkpoint. After requesting the passport of the woman driving, the guard demands to see the face of the Read More
How far should a teacher push their student in the name of greatness? This is one of the questions raised by 30-year-old Damien Chazelle’s jazz infused, high tempo drama Whiplash. This Sundance award winning film is Chazelle’s second feature after his low budget debut, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (2009). Although the two Read More
We’re all getting older, and writer, producer and director Noah Baumbach is presumably feeling it. His latest film is a finely observed comedy, which captures the anxiety and fear of a younger generation coming up to middle age to both poignant and hilarious effect. The film opens with childless, forty-something couple Josh (Ben Stiller) and Read More
“Loving someone won’t save them.” This quote sets the tone for French-Canadian director Xavier Dolan’s fifth film, Mommy, a story that focuses on the ferocity of a mother’s love for her tearaway son, who truly embodies the “enfant terrible” archetype. The co-winner of the prestigious 2014 Cannes Film Award, Mommy focuses on Diane ‘Die’ Després, Read More
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a4imrOhK-I Montage of Heck opens with a recording of Kurt Cobain’s disembodied voice inviting the audience to view a rare insight into his life: “Hey, I want to show you something.” Interviewing close friends and family only, very few voices are heard, presenting an intimate portrait of the punk-rock idol. With Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic Read More
Susanne Bier’s A Second Chance (En Chance Til) begins with police officer Andreas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his partner Simon (Ulrich Thomsen) breaking into the home of a drug-addicted couple, where they find a neglected baby boy covered in his own faeces. Unable to remove the child from his parents’ custody, Andreas returns to his own wife Read More
Given the retiral of Studio Ghibli’s founding generation of directors, the fan in me impels me to write that Ghibli’s brand of immersive cinematic magic is unique; given their international popularity, I dare say I will not be the only one to mourn their retirement. Many themes and features contribute to Ghibli’s distinctive filmic presence: Read More
The question, “How do you behave in a time of war?”resonates through the theatre, as a young Serb, Bojan, struggles to sit through his night shift at Radio Television Serbia amid the distant sound of NATO’s bombs plaguing the city of Belgrade. Marinus Groothof’s feature debut The Sky Above Us unfolds around this query. This Read More
The past often appears sun-bleached on the screen: idyllic, nostalgic. Niels Arden Oplev’s portrayal of Denmark in 1976 receives the same treatment in Speed Walking, a coming of age drama that exudes a reflective humour on the period – in its commitment to costume design at the very least. Amidst a sexual revolution – with Read More
With a focus on characterisation and the importance of filial relationships, Bernard Bellefroid presents Melody, only his second feature film since his debut in 2009 with The Boat Race, a film in which a young boy attempts to rediscover human values of love taken from him by an abusive father. In Melody, Bellefroid proves to Read More