Film Reviews

If someone had told me two weeks ago that the best film I would see at this year’s Cannes Film Festival would be a garish, blood-soaked exploitation thriller starring Nic Cage, I probably would have snorted at you with the sort of jeering derision reserved almost exclusively for certain members of the Cannes press corp. And yet, here we are. Directed by Canadian-Italian filmmaker Panos Cosmatos, this blistering rock ballad of a movie is the sort of euphoric cinema experience...

Nadine Labaki’s Capharnaüm isn’t a subtle film, but it’s one that will hit you hard. The story of a young boy navigating the slums of Beirut, it’s an idealistic but well-intentioned attempt to try and confront some of the pre-established socio-political structures within Lebanon; a country where you need a piece of official paper just to prove you exist. It begins, however, as something almost satirical. 12-year-old Zain (Zain Al Rafera) is in jail, convicted of stabbing a neighbour for...

Coercive Control - a form of abuse in a relationship that works not through physical violence but threats and other means of controlling a partner’s behaviour - only became a crime in the UK in late 2015. I don’t think it’s a commonly used description, or a crime, in much of the US, but Allure touches on it in some chilling ways. Laura (Evan Rachel Wood) is about 30 and works for her Dad’s house cleaning company. On her first...

Debuting at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, where first time director Léonor Serraille won the Camera d’Or prize, Jeune Femme is a restless look at the turbulent life of its protagonist Paula (Laetitia Dosch). She is struggling to come to terms with a break-up following a 10 year relationship with a successful photographer and is ricocheting from one impulsive decision to another. We first see her attempting to break into the apartment of her ex-boyfriend Joachim (Grégoire Monsaingeon). Her efforts...

Bounding along some five months after the release of The Last Jedi, Solo: A Star Wars Story is a film that appears to have been reverse engineered in the hopes of appeasing those few asinine fanboys who are still reeling from Rian Johnson’s forceful attempt to do more than simply pay homage to their beloved saga. Adopting the spirit of a plucky underdog, Solo is a scrappy, sweet-natured entry into the franchise, but one that never feels entirely sure of...

One wonders what it was about The House That Jack Built that persuaded Cannes director Thierry Fremaux to offer devious provocateur Lars von Trier a reprieve from his enforced exile. Presumably it wasn’t the scenes of duckling mutilation and toddler taxidermy that convinced him to change his mind, more likely it’s the fact that the whole thing comes across as a conceited exercise in navel-gazing that the festival’s programmers seem so keen to lap up. Still, at least the reports...

“Dis joint is based upon some fo’ real, fo’ real sh*t.” The story of Colorado detective Ron Stallworth is one of those true-life tall tales that’s just so strange it couldn’t be fiction, and in the hands of Spike Lee it proves to be pure dynamite – the director returning to the Croisette for the first time since 1991, to inject some much-needed energy into a somewhat lifeless Cannes Film Festival. Stallworth – played with charismatic charm by John David...

It would be so easy to become swept up in the obvious, outward significance of Eva Husson’s Girls of the Sun. The first of only three films to play in this year’s Official Competition to be directed by a woman, the Saturday night premiere screening was preceded by a silent red-carpet protest, in which 82 female figures from within the film industry walked the steps of the Palais, led by Jury President Cate Blanchett. The number is significant, representing each...

The need for there to be a greater diversity in the stories we see told through cinema is once again a hot-button topic of conversation at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. And the importance of such range is perfectly underscored here by Flemish filmmaker Lukas Dhont, who earnestly seeks to help right that filmic wrong with his extraordinary debut feature, Girl. It’s a story of inclusivity and isolation that centres on Lara (Victor Polster), a determined 15-year-old girl who’s committed...