Divergent review: girls just wanna do everything
No, it’s not wildly different than other science fiction, hero’s journey, and adventure movies. Sometimes we call such stories archetypal. Mythic, even.
reviews by year
The Railway Man review: a derailment on the line
Almost entirely ignores the amazing aspect of this true story that makes it worth telling, and even the very good performances point us in another direction than the intended one.
Being Ginger review: caught redhaired
A smartly perceptive and very brave personal documentary diary of one man’s attempts to come to terms with being an oft-derided and bullied redhead.
Night Moves movie review (Birds Eye View Film Festival)
Kelly Reichardt cements her reputation as one of the most provocative American indie filmmakers with this quiet, tense thriller of morality and motive.
Swim Little Fish Swim review (Birds Eye View Film Festival)
It’s almost a little too precious to be taken as an honest exploration artistically genuine lives. Or else that’s where it finds a lost romance.
The Retrieval review: the emotional legacy of American slavery
Deceptively simple and deeply cutting. A remarkable little film, a marvel of American indie filmmaking and of stories typically overlooked.
Jesus People review: Christian pop takes the softest of smacks
This too gentle mockumentary barely even takes aim at its easiest potential targets, but the appealing cast is game and manages a few cogent hits.
Half of a Yellow Sun review: history with a romantic flourish
Oh what a lovely film! As romance and history, this is by turns funny and tragic, suspenseful and celebratory, and never less than solidly entertaining.
The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears review: the color of nasty
A teeth-grindingly, blood-boilingly infuriating cinematic trial that’s like an art school film project gone horribly awry.
The Quiet Ones review: possession obsession
The few outright scares are curiously circumspect, but the old-fashioned Hammer Horror atmosphere is appealingly spooky.
