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Film Review
DIFF 2023 Review | Stirring Documentary My Imaginary CountryChronicles Chile’s Recent Grass-Roots…
On 3 November 1970, Salvador Allende, a Marxist physician, took office as the president of Chile. He would lead the Popular Unity coalition of Socialist, Communist, Radical and Social-Democratic parties with the support of other dissident…
A Welcome Escape From City Living | Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
I find Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom a surprisingly hard animal to quantify (is that a pun? Well if it is, it’s probably not worth calling attention to). While this Bhutanese drama initially follows the narratives of a city slicker in the…
Creed III | Boxing Threequel Punches Above Its Weight
When all is said and done and the last punch is thrown, one wonders if the monomyn Creed will have the same level of cultural caché as the ‘Rocky’ name. What would it take for the child to outshine its parent? Don’t get me wrong, 2015’s…
DIFF 2023 Review | Mark Cousins Examines the Roots of Fascist Propaganda in The March on Rome
Mark Cousins discovers History in The March on Rome. His most cited work concerns the ever-expanding chronology and development of cinema, but I seldom come away from his work with an improved understanding of the milieu from of which our…
DIFF 2023 Review | Ciné-Guerrillas Unearths a Lost Chapter in the History of Anti-Colonial Cinema
Ciné-Guerrillas suffers from a dearth of guerrillas. Director Mila Turajlic presents, as the film’s subtitle indicates, Scenes from the Labudovic Reels. Stevan Labudovic was a newsreel cameraman for Filmske novosti (Yugoslav Newsreels),…
A Sick Treat For Sick Puppies | Project Wolf Hunting Review
When you have been a fan of horror and action cinema for a long time, it's easy to get jaded and dare I say, desensitised. You live for those moments where you can't believe the film is doing what it is. Be it heads crushed underfoot,…
Women Talking | Here’s Why You Should Listen
Stay and forgive; stay and fight; leave.
These are the choices faced by the Mennonite women at the centre of Sarah Polley’s Women Talking. Eight women from three generations of two families have been nominated to make this decision for…
Knock At the Cabin | Shyamalan Knocks, But There’s No One Home
Let's face it, M. Night Shyamalan was once a revered genius. His sense of humanity and horror launched him into our lives with The Sixth Sense (1999) and its follow-up Unbreakable (2000). He was once an unstoppable, creative box-office…
The Brenaissance Reaches New Heights in Aronofsky’s Spiritual Drama The Whale
In the build-up to the release of Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, there has been a small but vocal public backlash. The crassness of the title, combined with the few promotional stills of Brendan Fraser donned in an Eddie Murphy-style…
The Fabelmans | Spielberg’s Cine-Memoir Radiates Warmth and Wit
There’s a now infamous moment from Steven Spielberg’s appearance on Inside the Actor’s Studio. The host James Lipton poses a question to the filmmaker about the climax of Close Encounters of the Third Kind that suggests it was inspired by…