• The Kindergarten Teacher

    March 15, 2019 - By 

    For a film about a frustrated, unhappy child educator, The Kindergarten Teacher is surprisingly quiet. No chaotic scenes of brats in meltdowns and screaming teachers wilting with stress. In fact, New York teacher Lisa Spinelli (Maggie Gyllenhaal) seems to have lucked out. Her little ones are well-behaved and she seems to genuinely like them, navigating her classroom with that airy, benign, vaguely lupine air Gyllenhaal does so well. Her days tick along in well-observed routine: cleaning toilets, pouring fruit juice and washing dishes in tiny sink. But there is unfulfilment seeping out of her. In the downtime it is deafening. Sara Colangelo’s…

  • Tyrel

    March 11, 2019 - By 

    Like Sebastián Silva’s previous films, Tyrel walks the tightrope between psychological drama and out-and-out horror. Interpersonal conflicts come to the fore in strange, unpredictable ways. The tension is palpable, the level of cringe punishing. The film takes place over the course of one wild weekend. Tyler has been invited by his friend Johnny to drink with his childhood buddies. Being thrown into a new group of people can be anxiety-inducing enough, but once Tyler meets Johnny’s fratboy mates, it quickly becomes clear that he’s the only black man among them, adding an extra layer of unspoken tension. What makes Tyrel…

  • Isn’t It Romantic

    March 7, 2019 - By 

    A young girl named Natalie watches Pretty Woman in an early 1990s sitting room. Her mother pours a glass of wine and warns that they don’t make movies about girls like us. Except Hollywood does. Isn’t It Romantic is a romantic comedy disguised as a parody of the genre. The characters run through every convention of the sometimes unfairly maligned genre while proclaiming that they are not falling for its charms. You can guess what happens next. Adult Natalie (Rebel Wilson) is disenchanted with idea of love and a cynic about romantic comedies. After a mugging, she wakes up in…

  • The Man Who Felt No Pain

    March 7, 2019 - By 

    As high-concept premises go, The Man Who Feels No Pain (Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota) has an absolute humdinger. It’s an Indian martial arts film about Surya, a man with a rare disorder that prevents him from registering pain. With an irreverent tone and a theme song featuring the lyric “Break it! Shatter it! I am the man who feels no pain!” this should be martial arts movie for the ages. So why is it such a chore to watch? Well, the pacing for one thing. The Man Who Feels No Pain is a turgid 134 minutes long, inconceivable considering the…

  • The Aftermath

    March 6, 2019 - By 

    To imagine the level of destruction and ruthless vengeance that was wrought upon Germany in the later stages of WW2, as it was facing defeat, is a hard thing to do. But this is one thing that director James Kent (Testament Of Youth) achieves exceptionally well, with the help of Ridley Scott in the producer’s chair. And while the performances from the three leads are all impressive, in particular with Kiera Knightley and Alexander Skarsgård, The Aftermath comes across as a predictable, paper-thin adaptation of the Rhidian Brook novel of the same name. The Aftermath tells the story of a…

  • DIFF19: Rafiki

    March 5, 2019 - By 

    When you think of films set in the African continent, what subject matter comes to mind? Poverty? AIDS? Child soldiers? That isn’t to be disingenuous. Of course African countries face dire problems that need more attention. But how often do we see films that reflect the stunning culture and spirit that they have to offer? After all, that’s what made last year’s Black Panther so revelatory. To that end, the last few years have seen the emergence of an African art collective called AFROBUBBLEGUM (the capitalization is mandatory). Comprised of filmmakers, clothes designers, graphic designers, its mission is to create…

  • DIFF19: Ray & Liz

    March 5, 2019 - By 

    Writer/director Richard Billingham has said that Ray & Liz reflects his memories of his childhood, rather than the reality. After watching this blisteringly bleak film, I can’t tell if that’s cause for relief or great concern. The film serves as an adaptation of ‘Ray’s a Laugh’, a collection of portraits featuring Billingham’s alcoholic father. In the present day, Ray lies in his high-rise tenement flat in Birmingham, drinking homebrew made by his friend Sid. Ray’s welfare does just enough to cover his addiction and since Sid picks up his dole, he scarcely needs to move – except to pour booze…

  • DIFF19: Dear Son

    March 1, 2019 - By 

    For western society, ISIS is often depicted as a bogeyman hiding in the shadows, waiting to strike. Rarely do we have to contend with the possibility that our children could be seduced by its poisonous ideology. That is the ordeal faced by Liadh, a middle class Tunisian father in Mohammed Ben Attia’s Dear Son. Sadly the film is crippled by a myopia that prevents it from fully exploring its striking premise. The film’s solid first act at least takes the time to establish its protagonist. Played by the endearing Mohammed Dhrif, Liadh is your quintessential doddery dad. He fumbles for…

  • Capernaum

    March 1, 2019 - By 

    “My life is dogshit.” Zain El Hajj, the young protagonist of Nadine Labaki’s third feature Capernaum, which competed for the Foreign Language prize at last week’s Oscars, is not having such a good time of it. Twelve years old with an asterix (as a child to undocumented parents, there’s no birth certificate for confirmation), Zain endures a monotonous, shabby, profoundly unnourishing childhood in Beirut’s dilapidated urban sprawl. Played by Zain Al Rafeea, a Syrian refugee himself, the young lad lives with his large family in a rotting apartment owned by their cousin Assad, in whose shop some of the kids spend…

  • The Kid Who Would Be King

    February 15, 2019 - By 

    The Kid Who Would Be King is an old-fashioned film, and I don’t think Joe Cornish would mind it being called that. After some years spent contributing to studio scripts, the English writer-director follows up 2011’s Attack The Block with another tale of hearty contemporary misfits banding together to take on a deadly genre threat. The film is fuelled by issues of story-telling inheritance, drawing on Arthurian, fairy tale structures for a funny, down to Earth, quite moving tale of a young boy trying to figure out who he is. Alex (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) is a twelve year-old struggling with a…