daily stream: don’t tell Grandma she’s dying?
2019’s The Farewell is new on Netflix in the US, on Prime in the UK.
directed by women
daily stream: finding necessary purpose in elderhood
2020’s The Mole Agent is on Hulu and Kanopy in the US, BFI Player and Dogwoof on Demand in the UK.
Cat Person movie review: her too
The cringe of modern relationships stinks up this antiromance. Its bald truths, all but ignored in pop culture, about how women navigate romantic and sexual relationships with men, demand to be heard.
My Animal movie review: out of the wilderness (and into a bigger one)
A mysterious, mournful film about proscribed teenaged-girlhood and feral female sexuality. There’s nothing entirely original here, but what it has to say, it says with enormous confidence and panache.
Scrapper movie review: girlhood interrupted
A singular portrait of a girl full of verve and personality. An astonishing feature debut from Charlotte Regan, with a film as cheeky and imaginative, as pleasantly messy and chaotic, as its heroine.
Paris Memories (Revoir Paris) movie review: healing after horror
A deeply humane, delicately constructed journey through trauma and recovery that cuts like a knife and soothes like a hug, somehow, miraculously, managing both bundles of feeling at the same time.
Mavka: The Forest Song movie review: the dark of the woods comes too late
Traditional folk music and beautifully animated mythic motifs may be rightfully validating for homegrown Ukrainian audiences, but there’s little else beyond that novelty to capture others’ imagination.
daily stream: meet the most extreme tourists on Earth
2020’s Stalking Chernobyl is streaming free worldwide on YouTube.
Rare Objects movie review: broken things, on the mend
It’s overstuffed and often jarring. But it’s also honest and unassuming, never insipid or sentimental, with a rough power, a generous spirit, and performances that are warm, wise, and perceptive.
Blue Jean movie review: cowardice and bravery as matters of survival
A powerful, necessary film, deeply humane and sympathetic, ugly-beautiful in its panic, full of dread and bad behavior. We feel every iota of Jean’s anxiety at closeted life in the homophobic 1980s.
