Swallow (2019)

I was very interested to see the film Swallow (2019) turn up on Stan’s streaming services in Australia after reading reviews of its festival and arthouse run in the US before cinemas closed down. A warning right from the start is that this is not a film for everyone. Swallow stars Haley Bennett, who has […]

In Fabric (2018)

Peter Strickland is a British director I have time for, because of his second and third films, Berberian Sound Studio and The Duke Of Burgundy, playing with older genre forms (Italian horror movies, European erotica) and crafting art-house homages that almost have an academic, clinical bent. Strickland’s latest film, In Fabric (2018) is a strange […]

Blow The Man Down (2019)

Acquired by Amazon Studios and streaming now on Amazon Prime is the film, Blow The Man Down (2019). Beginning with a stirring rendition of the title sea shanty by several fisherman on the docks (who function as a type of Greek Chorus throughout the film), it’s a stylish way of announcing its setting – a […]

Dheepan (2015)

I was compelled to watch Dheepan (2015) after hearing M.I.A. discuss it in the Criterion Closet. Opening with its title character (played by Antonythasan Jesuthasan in an excellent performance) burning his uniform as a Tamil Tiger in a bonfire where the bodies of his fallen comrades have been collected. He needs a make-shift family to […]

God’s Own Country (2017)

At the film discussion event we held at Blue Room Theatre’s Winter Nights, I asked the special guests to recommend films in response to a question. One of the questions was “What film would you watch as the world ends?” For academic and writer Janice Loreck, one of her answers was God’s Own Country (2017), […]