Gems, Hustlers and Keepers: 2020 Independent Spirit Awards nominations

The 2020 Independent Spirit Awards nominations have recently been announced with Roger Eggers “The Lighthouse” and Benny Safdie and  Josh Safdie‘s “Uncut Gems” being nominated for five awards including Best Director. The other big films to receive multiple nominations also include Alma Har’el‘s “Honey Boy” and Music Box’s comedy “Give Me Liberty”. Out of the six directors nominated for best director, two of the nominees … Continue reading Gems, Hustlers and Keepers: 2020 Independent Spirit Awards nominations

ITOL Top 50 Films of the Decade, Entry No. 30: Toni Erdmann

With her third feature film, Maren Ade announced herself on to the international scene during 2016, with her robust, confounding comedy of delicate, deliberate and disastrously strained parental ties. A thematic notion achieved with such success is not often seen in cinema, capturing the fraught emotional bonds of a career-driven daughter and her aloof father. As varying dynamics exist in relationships between adulthood and childhood and vice versa, very few directors have successfully articulated and dramatised them as well as Ade. A remarkable cinematic achievement, creating a film that is deeply human and tragically nostalgic and profound whilst absurdly comedic. Continue reading ITOL Top 50 Films of the Decade, Entry No. 30: Toni Erdmann