Simone Barbes Or Virtue (1980)

I love movies set over one night. What wonders and surprises does the night hold? Or chaos and calamity? Then again, maybe a night is just like any other. Loneliness as the sun comes up. Within that uneventful time, there’s still lots to observe. Fleeting moments. Simone Barbes Or Virtue (1980) is a French arthouse […]

Zero Fucks Given (2021)

“Your uniform is your armour.” Something to this effect is told to the flight attendants taking a training course. Cassandre (Adèle Exarchopoulos) knows this, but has some difficulty participating in a smiling exercise. “Leave your emotions behind.” Zero Fucks Given (2021) is an observational workplace drama, which follows Cassandre on her rounds as an attendant […]

Afire (2023)

To me, unlikeable characters can be great protagonists. Sometimes they help identify and purge the unlikeable parts inside of us. Like with the pretentious writer Leon (Thomas Schubert) in director Christian Petzold’s Afire (2023). A classic stick in the mud, Leon accompanies his friend Felix (Langston Uibel) to a holiday house in Felix’s family, out […]

The 10th Victim (1965)

When a film depicts the future, it’s not just a vision of the future but a document of the time. Case in point, The 10th Victim (1965) which is set in the year 2079 and based on the short story by Robert Sheckley, and yet, it is completely a time capsule of 1960s pop-art, comic-book […]

The Heartbreak Kid (1972)

As a 90s kid in Australia, I had a bit of confusion around The Heartbreak Kid, since that was also the title of a hit Australian teen drama, starring Alex Dimitridaias and Claudia Karvan, which eventually led to the TV show Heartbreak High. Completely unrelated, The Heartbreak Kid (1972) was based on a short story […]