For the past couple of weeks, this writer has been consumed with Charlie Kaufman‘s new novel ‘Antkind’. The first literary effort from the longtime screenwriter/filmmaker, it abounds with all of his artistic signatures in their purest forms: absurdist wordplay, manipulations of time and space, introspection and anxiety. But even though the page may afford Kaufman Read More
Papicha
A group of young women come of age against the backdrop of civil war in Mounia Meddour’s vibrant, nuanced debut. When we meet fashion student Nedjma, played by Lyna Khoudri, on a night out on the town with her mates, she seems like most free-spirited young women. Dressed to the nines, her eyelids blue, and Read More
Perfect 10
A troubled young gymnast experiences the ups and down of adolescence in Eva Riley tender debut feature. Scottish writer/director Eva Riley brings passion and heart to this wholesome coming-of-age drama. Set on the outskirts of Brighton, Perfect 10 is a film about the female experience, capturing the complicated emotional and physical stages of pubescence through Read More
Young Ahmed
The Dardenne brothers change tack with this provocative portrait of a teenage Muslim fundamentalist. A teapot-sized tempest brewed up on social media when the Cannes Film Festival released the official synopsis for Young Ahmed, the new feature from Croisette mainstays Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. It revealed basic a premise oriented around an adolescent Muslim fundamentalist Read More
Paul Thomas Anderson wants Bradley Cooper for his ’70s high school movie
Cinephiles will be relieved to hear that even though the coronavirus pandemic has stalled shooting in Hollywood, we’re still moving down the production pipeline to a new feature by Paul Thomas Anderson. Once on track to be a highlight of this year’s release calendar, at least the gestating project remains on track to be a Read More
Steve McQueen’s John Boyega-starring miniseries is arriving this year
In recent months, John Boyega has proven himself beyond all shadow of a doubt to be a real one. He was on the front lines of the police brutality protests, speaking candidly about the sorry state of racial inequality in the UK without a care as to how it could affect his career prospects in Read More
Yes, God, Yes
Natalia Dyer plays a Catholic girl who experiences a profound sexual awakening in Karen Maine’s smart religious satire. This charming debut narrative feature from writer/director Karen Maine addresses themes of religion and adolescence from a female perspective. It was inspired by Maine’s own experiences as a Catholic high schooler, and depicts its young heroine’s discovery Read More
David Squires on… Christopher Nolan’s time bomb
Published 3 Aug 2020 Share this
“There were times when I was sore from laughing” – Adam McKay on The Other Guys at 10
“There were times when I was sore from laughing” – Adam McKay on The Other Guys at 10 The director reflects on the making of his 2010 buddy cop comedy, and the serious message at its heart. “I think that movie is maybe the hardest I’ve laughed on set,” says director Adam McKay, reflecting on Read More
Great debut features from female directors
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of discovering a great filmmaking talent, and with the release of Claire Oakley’s debut feature Make Up, a strong new directorial voice is on the rise. It’s an enchanting tale of obsession and untapped desire set in the eerie world of an off-season caravan park, and it follows Ruth, Read More
Why Flash Gordon remains a singularly joyous comic book adaptation
Alex Raymond’s adventure comic strip ‘Flash Gordon’ was first commissioned in 1934 by King Features Syndicate to rival the similarly space-set Buck Rogers. Astonishingly, it was still running almost seven decades later (the last new strip appeared in 2003). In the meantime it inspired the costumed iconography of Superman and the Batman, while spawning three Read More
Miranda July’s Kajillionaire follows a family of eccentric thieves
One of the most high-profile acquisitions at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, approximately one thousand years ago, concerned the latest feature from the improlific yet consistent Miranda July. Focus Features picked up Kajillionaire in a hotly contested deal, and though plans for a summer rollout had to be shifted back when the Coronavirus crisis broke Read More
Pixar announces Luca, a coming-of-age adventure set on the Italian Riviera
Though virus-related delays have forestalled the release of Pixar’s next big feature Soul (you know, the one in which a comatose man’s anthropomorphized consciousness must journey through the afterlife in search of truth and meaning – for kids!), the animation giant has already begun to break ground on their next project. Call Me by Your Read More
A new documentary shows a journalist risking it all for a greater truth
What should a journalist do when a nation’s president lies? It’s a question that has troubled Filipina journalist Maria Ressa for over a decade. Ressa is the executive editor of Rappler, the country’s most prominent and progressive independent news source, and a fierce critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, whose populist and authoritarian policies have earned Read More
The real-life tragedy that inspired Jaws’ most famous scene
“Whoom. Up in the air I went,” remembers Loel Dean Cox of the night the USS Indianapolis sank, 75 years ago. Loel, then 19, was on duty that evening, in position on the bridge of the Portland-class heavy cruiser. The ship was on its way back from Tinian Island, having lugged around half of the Read More
‘Sexual behaviour doesn’t change a woman’s identity’ – Josephine Mackerras on Alice
Josephine Mackerras’ debut feature might have looked and sounded very different had the slow pace of industry formalities and a barely-there budget not provoked a sense of urgency in the Australian filmmaker. “Something in me snapped,” she says of her decision to move the production from London to Paris, where she was living at the Read More
The symbolic power of caravans in female coming-of-age films
“A caravan park has the capacity to be both dream and nightmare, with only a flimsy plastic wall as the line between the two.” This quote from writer/director Claire Oakley, taken from the production notes of her debut feature, Make Up, sets the tone for an oneiric fever dream in which a teenage girl experiences Read More
Claire Oakley: ‘The whole film is about describing the feelings of this young woman’
Claire Oakley: ‘The whole film is about describing the feelings of this young woman’ How a fascination with female desire inspired the first-time director of the excellent Make Up. Claire Oakley’s first feature is a bewitching and mysterious journey into the subconscious of a young woman discovering new, scary but thrilling desires inside herself. Her Read More
Make Up
A Cornish caravan park provides the backdrop to a young woman’s sexual (re)awakening in Claire Oakley’s impressive debut. In the opening sequence of writer/director Claire Oakley’s debut feature, Make Up, Ruth (Molly Windsor) arrives at a seaside holiday park in Cornwall to be and work with her boyfriend of three years, Tom (Joseph Quinn). She Read More
Again Once Again
Argentine actor and author Romina Paula turns director for this sublime mediation on middle age womanhood. It’s tragic that Romina Paula isn’t a household name outside of her native Argentina, where she’s proven herself an exciting cultural figure in recent years. In addition to writing three novels (only one of which, ‘August’ has been translated Read More
Proxima
Director Alice Winocour and star Eva Green deliver a moving addition to the parent-in-space genre. When Sally Ride was going to become the first American woman to go to space in 1983, NASA engineers hit a wall with a question that baffled them as much as any equation. How many tampons should they send with Read More
Chloé Zhao, Gia Coppola and Michel Franco head up Venice Film Festival 2020
Chloé Zhao, Gia Coppola and Michel Franco head up Venice Film Festival 2020 La Biennale’s 77th edition will go ahead as planned, with one of the festival’s most eclectic line-ups in years. Following the (fully expected) cancellation of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, our attentions quickly turned to the two major international autumn festivals, Venice Read More
Why Proxima is a giant leap for motherhood on screen
In the end credits for Proxima the names and images of mothers and their children are shown, family portraits where each of these women are kitted out in full astronaut gear. These brave women are the real-life individuals that Alice Winocour’s film honours. Through exploring Sarah Loreau’s (Eva Green) aspiration of leaving Earth, while battling Read More
Why The Game remains David Fincher’s trickiest thriller
Coming hard upon the huge success of Se7en, although in fact conceived before it, David Fincher’s The Game presents itself as a mystery to be solved. We know this because the opening credits sequence shows a grid of animated jigsaw puzzle pieces scattering apart, signifiers of a fragmenting bigger picture and meaning in need of Read More
A short history of Hollywood’s (ill-fated) attempts to adapt the internet
For brothers Matt and Harrison Query, a nightmare turned into a dream come true this past weekend. Not so long ago, Matt was killing time as many online denizens do, by posting on Reddit; he had taken to r/nosleep, where users share original short horror stories, to get some feedback on a new composition with Read More
Watch: What makes a movie line memorable?
“Bond, James Bond.” It’s one of the most famous lines in movie history, first spoken by Sean Connery as the super-suave British double agent in 1962’s Dr No. For many, Connery is Bond. But he’s not the reason this line became iconic. You’d recognise it out of the mouths of Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Read More
Summerland
Gemma Arterton plays a reclusive writer who rediscovers her romantic side in Jessica Swale’s tender wartime drama. This year has already delivered one successful queer period film, Céline Sciamma’s Cannes-winning Portrait of a Lady on Fire, set in 1770 Brittany. Now we have another, from first-time British writer/director Jessica Swale. The significance of this phenomenon Read More
How Palm Springs breaks the problematic pattern of time-loop romances
While spending what has sometimes felt like an eternity in lockdown might not seem like the ideal circumstances in which to enjoy a time-loop movie, Hulu’s Palm Springs succeeds not only in providing plenty of laughs but also in casting off the sexist shackles of the genre. Max Barbakow’s directorial debut dares to do something Read More
This new stock audio library is a gamechanger for filmmakers
With the recent explosion of devices, apps and new media platforms, there’s arguably never been a greater influx of creative output in the world. But if you’re a young creative looking to expand your skillset or get a new project off the ground, it can be hard to know where to start. There’s also the Read More
Watch an eerie new short film made entirely in lockdown
It’s down over four months since lockdown officially began, although many of us have been stuck inside for longer, and even now with the government cajoling us to “Stay Alert > Control the Virus > Save Lives” by nipping down to Primark or consider returning to the workplace in order to boost the crippled economy, Read More