Month: February 2022
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Vikings: Valhalla, all about the women
Vikings: Valhalla looked pretty bloody and male dominated when I first glanced at it. Wars always are. But a tip from my Twitter pal Babble On Girl gave me the idea the women characters were important enough to make watching it worthwhile. Here’s what I learned.
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Review: The Nowhere Inn. It’s absurd.
The Nowhere Inn is a movie about making a documentary about a rock star. It was written by Carrie Brownstein and St. Vincent, who both play themselves in this movie about making a movie.
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Cadillac Records, the music goes on
Cadillac Records is a 2008 film that I just found on Netflix. It’s set in the 1950s in Chicago where a young Polish immigrant named Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody) opened a recording studio and started promoting the music of Black blues musicians. This fictionalized biopic remains interesting, largely because the music is timeless.
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Review: Anne+ The Film
Anne+ The Film, from co-writer and director Valerie Bisscheroux, is a Dutch language story about a woman who comes to terms with herself. Most of the characters are lesbians and/or queer. The film is on Netflix. There are spoilers in this review.
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Review: Titane. Is Julia Ducournau the queen of horror?
Titane won director Julia Ducournau the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2021. When a woman wins a major award like that, I feel obligated to watch her film. This film is a demented horror movie with several possible messages that were thematically muddy to me.
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Review: The Sky is Everywhere
The Sky is Everywhere is a study in grief from director Josephine Decker. When a teenage girl’s older sister dies it throws her into a crazy spiral of grieving. Also explored are other family members and the dead girl’s boyfriend’s ways of grieving. It’s a heavy topic but it’s treated with fantasy and magical realism.
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Review: Ma Belle, My Beauty
Ma Belle, My Beauty is an indie from writer and director Marion Hill. It’s a rare kind of relationship drama set in the photogenic French countryside. You can rent it on Prime Video.
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Review: Allure, the generational trauma of abuse
Allure, a 2017 Canadian release, recently came to my attention on Prime Video. This is a very disturbing film about sexual abuse and is definitely not for everyone. Evan Rachel Wood and Julia Sarah Stone both provide brilliant, powerful portrayals.
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Review: Prayers for the Stolen (Noche de fuego)
Prayers for the Stolen (Noche de fuego) was Mexico’s entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards. The heart breaking film was written and directed by Tatiana Huezo from a novel by Jennifer Clement [affiliate link].
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Review: KIMI, put blue hair dye on the shopping list
KIMI is a tightly drawn thriller starring Zoë Kravitz. I was delighted by Zoë Kravitz, by the fast-paced action from director Steven Soderbergh, and by the kickass empowered ending for the main character. This film is streaming on HBO Max.