Swarm – TV Series Review

With Swarm, Janine Nabers and Donald Glover (both writers on Atlanta) have created a series so unconventional yet timely it’ll speak to an entire generation. It’s a story so surreal, you start to believe it’s real, and perhaps some of it even is. I found myself pausing certain episodes and Googling specific events, because I …

Das Lehrerzimmer (The Teachers’ Lounge) – Film Review | Berlinale 2023

When one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch – The Crown, Babylon Berlin) decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her. With Das Lehrerzimmer, Ilker Çatak directs his most accessible film, …

Happy FKN Sunshine – Film Review

Small town Canadian life is boring, but when the town mill goes on strike to fight the man, and everyone is out of work, things get tense. Quiet Will (Matt Close) fixes to put a band together to fill the void of his lonely days, with his sister Ronnie (Mattea Brotherton) acting as manager. Lead …

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody – Film Review

Ten years after the tragic passing of vocal legend Whitney Houston, Sony Pictures and the writer behind the Academy Award-winning Bohemian Rhapsody, fittingly release a biopic covering the highs and lows of the most celebrated Black artist in music history. Kasi Lemmons (Eve’s Bayou) directs a by the numbers biopic that surprisingly isn’t afraid to …

Bones of Crows – Film Review | TIFF 2022

Montreal, 1942 World War II is well underway in Europe. The day he is put on a train to go fight in London, Adam (Phillip Lewitski) marries Aline (Grace Dove) moments before they are separated. Aline goes back to work as a Morse code operator. After graduating from the academy, she is sent over to …

Luxembourg, Luxembourg – Film Review | La Biennale di Venezia 2022

Based on an important event in director Antonio Lukich’s life, Luxembourg, Luxembourg tells the story of twin brothers Kolya & Vasya setting out on a journey to see their long-absent father, who’s found sick in Luxembourg, one last time. Everyone has a different bond with their parents, but when a parent leaves early on in …

Tell Me Lies – TV Review (Ep. 1 – 5)

Lucy Albright (Grace Van Patten – Nine Perfect Strangers), a young woman just starting college, finds herself falling for a charming man, who’s just a little too good at lying. Although their relationship begins like any typical campus romance, they quickly fall into an addictive entanglement that will permanently alter not only their lives, but …

Here Be Dragons – Film Review

Bosnia, 1993. Englishman David Locke (Nathan Sapsford) is stationed in Bosnia. Two months after his arrival, he meets a charming young woman he thinks he could have a future with. That is until his run in with Ivan Novak (Vladimir Gvojic), a sadist who loves his country and wants the English out. He offers David …

Squeal – Film Review

Lost in an undisclosed remote part of Eastern Europe, Samuel is a foreigner in search of his biological father. When he hits a pig with his car, the local pig-farmer’s daughter invites him over to her home, where she captures Samuel and makes him her slave. Aik Karapetian’s dark fairy tale ‘Squeal’ is unlike anything …

Millie Lies Low – Film Review

“I just got dumped by my future” Before she can start her new life in New York City as an intern at an architecture firm, Millie (Ana Scotney) has a panic attack (even though she doesn’t have those) and has to leave the plane. Back in Wellington without a car, no job, no money, nowhere …