daily stream: tastes like chicken…
2000’s Chicken Run is on Prime in the US, and streaming on Prime (leaving soon!) and Disney+ in the UK.
London Film Festival
loaded question: what’s the most romantic movie you’ve ever seen?
My choice is easy: the infinitely wise, moving, and — yes — funny Truly, Madly, Deeply, starring Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman.
Flee documentary review: home is when you don’t have to run away
Impossibly, heartbreakingly poignant, rooted in tough emotion and hard realities. A deeply humane movie that makes an unspoken, effortless plea for compassion for refugees’ distress and desperation.
Cop Secret movie review: cold fuzz (LFF 2021)
Absolutely hilarious Icelandic sendup of action buddy cop movies. Knowing, sneaky, and deliciously deadpan, upending toxic masculinity and elevating the usual subtext of the genre to the overt text.
One Night in Miami… movie review: the past, still prologue
An electrifying philosophical fantasia that imagines four towering figures of 1960s America arguing over how to navigate racism as Black men. Enraging, but also thrilling, bursting with cinematic joy.
Stray documentary review: a dog’s eye view of humanity, from the outside
A bittersweet, multilayered vérité portrait of the street dogs of Istanbul. Startlingly immersive, howling with moral questions about what we owe these creatures of intelligence, dignity, and feeling.
Farewell Amor movie review: family ties undone, and forged again (LFF 2020)
Achieves that rare cinematic feat of being specific and universal at the same time. A lovely film, plaintive and poignant, with exquisite performances from a beguiling cast, and ultimately hopeful.
Fanny Lye deliver’d from her own deliverance with the dick-washed US poster for ‘The Delivered’
It’s the dick-washing of The Sapphires all over again.
Small Axe: Mangrove movie review: parties and protests (LFF 2020)
A triumph. McQueen brings history to life and makes it sing with zest and passion, with a spirit that endures beyond the strife. A celebration of Black joy alongside a raging against Black oppression.
Mogul Mowgli movie review: Riz Ahmed goes home and goes big (LFF 2020)
An uneasy jolt of (pop) culture clash and assimilation angst. Unsettling and electrifying; near-nightmarish and absolutely mesmerizing. Riz Ahmed oozes sweat and rage, pride and power.
