Category: drama
REVIEW: Leave No Trace (2018)
Debra Granik is one of the USA's most essential filmmakers. She works slowly, directing just four films in the last 14 years, but every one has been both exceptional and unmissable. She is a superb social realist, grounding her films with a impeccably researched sense of place. She also tells deep human stories with the ...
REVIEW: The Last Painting (2017)
On the day of the 2016 Taiwan election, police find a mutilated body of a young woman in an apartment. Her naked body has been painted white, and her eyes have been cut out and removed from the scene. Four months earlier, the victim Yang Chieh (Chang Ning) moves into the same apartment - sharing ...
REVIEW: Funny Cow (2018)
In northern England in the 1970s, a troubled woman (Maxine Peake) doggedly pursues a career as a stand-up comedian. It is extremely important to note two things about Funny Cow, the new feature film from director Adrian Shergold. Firstly, despite its title and subject matter (the making of a stand-up comic) it isn't a comedy. Secondly, ...
REVIEW: The Beach of the Drowned (2015)
The dead body of a fisherman washes up on a beach in Galicia. The police investigation, led by Inspector Leo Caldas (Carmelo Gómez), soon uncovers a mysterious secret involving a two-year old shipwreck, a missing woman, and a group of former sailors with a terrible secret. Based on the novel La playa de los ahogados by Domingo ...
REVIEW: Portrait of a Beauty (2008)
Shin Yun Bok (Kim Min-sun) is a painter-in-training in 18th century Korea. While skilled and creative, he has two problems. Firstly, he is constantly driven to explore unconventional styles and subject matters for his art - matter which is oftentimes controversial and obscene. Secondly, he is actually a young woman, disguising her true identity to ...
REVIEW: Destruction Babies (2016)
Shota (Nijiro Murakami) lives alone in a tent in the small Japanese town of Mitsuhama. His older brother Taira (Yuya Yagira) is on the streets of the nearby city Matsuyama. Taira is fixated on having fistfights. If he sees a target on the street who looks as if they can present a challenge, he simply ...
REVIEW: April Story (1998)
Uzuki (Takako Matsu) is a quiet and underconfident young woman who makes the move from Hokkaido to Tokyo to study at university. She struggles to make friends and fit in, all the while dwelling on the reason - initially unknown to the audience - why she elected to study so far from home. April Story is ...
