Year: 2024 Runtime: 84 minutes Directed by: Ethan Coen Written by: Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke Starring: Margaret Qualley, Beanie Feldstein, Geraldine Viswanathan, Connie Jackson, Bill Camp, Pedro Pascal, Colman Domingo, C.J. Wilson, Joey Slotnick, Matt Damon, Miley Cyrus By Sarah Manvel Sometimes having too much money is a bad thing. If “Drive-Away Dolls” had been made by a bunch of nobodies on a shoestring … Continue reading GFF2024 review: Drive-Away Dolls
Year: 2024 Runtime: 117 minutes Directed by: Matěj Chlupáček Written by: Miro Šifra Starring: Eliška Křenková, Miloslav König, Luboš Veselý, Milan Ondrík, Richard Langdon, Ján Jackuliak By Sarah Manvel This Czech-Slovak co-production is highly unusual and not just in its marketing through-line of a woman investigating a crime in Slovakia in 1937. Its real subject is how society then and society now deals with intersex people – that … Continue reading GFF2024 review: We Have Never Been Modern / Úsvit
Year:2024 Runtime: 129 minutes Writer/ Director: Viggo Mortensen Starring: Vicky Krieps, Viggo Mortensen, Colin Morgan, Solly McLeod By Sarah Manvel Onscreen, Viggo Mortensen projects a righteousness that comes across like a mountain – solid, immovable and attractively dangerous. At the Glasgow Film Festival Q&A he was clearly nervous, which feels such at odds with his screen persona that it was a surprise, not to mention … Continue reading GFF2024 Review: The Dead Don’t Hurt
Year: 2024 Runtime: 111 minutes Written and directed by: Katharina Pethke By Sarah Manvel When writer-director Katharina Pethke began teaching at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg, where she had also been a student, she realised that her lecture hall was in the hospital where she had been born. But on mentioning this coincidence to her family she learned that both her mother and … Continue reading Berlinale 2024 review: Reproduktion
Year: 2024 Runtime: 117 minutes Written and directed by: Meryam Joobeur Actors: Salha Nasraoui, Mohamed Hassine Grayaa, Malek Merchegui, Chaker Merchegui, Rayen Merchegui, Adam Bessa, Dea Liane By Sarah Manvel No one should ever have to choose between ethics and family, but life is rarely black and white. Of course there are certain things in this world which are so evil that it’s human nature to … Continue reading Berlinale 2024 review: Who Do I Belong To / Mé el Aïn
Year: 2024 Runtime: 104 minutes Directed by: Dāvis Sīmanis Written by: Dāvis Sīmanis, Magali Negroni, Tabita Rudzāte Starring: Olga Šepicka-Slapjuma, Inese Kučinska By Sarah Manvel This gorgeous black-and-white Latvian-Lithuanian coproduction is more than a biopic of the Latvian silent-movie actress Maria Leiko. It is also an act of defiance and contempt for Russia, then and now. Its importance is in its depiction of a history … Continue reading Berlinale 2024 review: Maria’s Silence / Marijas klusums
Year:2024 Runtime: 106 minutes Directed by: Margherita Vicario Written by: Anita Rivaroli and Margherita Vicario Actors: Carlotta Gamba, Maria Vittoria Dallasta, Sara Mafodda, Veronica Lucchesi, Paolo Rossi, Anita Kravos, Galatea Bellugi By Sarah Manvel At the Berlinale I was chatting with another critic about my problem with “Small Things Like These (2024),” which is a fantasia about a man standing up to the Catholic church … Continue reading Berlinale 2024 review: Gloria!
Year: 2024 Runtime: 93 minutes Written and directed by: Ray Yeung Actors: Maggie Li Lin Lin, Patra Au Ga Man, Tai Bo, Hui So Ying, Fish Liew Chi Yu, Leung Ching Hang, Rachel Leung By Sarah Manvel It is very hard for anyone to admit that their family doesn’t really love them, but this is unfortunately a common experience for homosexuals, especially those of a … Continue reading Berlinale 2024 review: All Shall Be Well
Year: 2024 Runtime: 105 minutes Directed by: Claire Burger Written by: Claire Burger in collaboration with Léa Mysuis Actors: Lilith Grasmug, Chiara Mastroianni, Jalal Atlawil, Josefa Heinsius, Nina Hoss By Sarah Manvel Movies often forget what teenagers are really like: impulsive, careless, selfish, self-centered, convinced of their own superiority and unaware of the long-term consequences of their actions. This is all part of growing up, … Continue reading Berlinale 2024 review: Langue Étrangère / Foreign Tongue
Year: 2024 Runtime: 121 minutes Written and directed by: Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala Starring: Anja Plaschg, David Scheid, Maria Hofstätter Caution: Below contains discussion of mental health issues such as depression that some may find triggering. By Sarah Manvel “The Devil’s Bath” is a profoundly excellent and disturbing movie about depression, despair and the ways in which people coped with those emotions in 18th century … Continue reading Berlinale 2024 review: The Devil’s Bath / Des Teufels Bad
In Their Own League 