Vengeance Is Mine (1984)

Typing Vengeance Is Mine as a movie title produces a few results including the Shōhei Imamura movie from 1979 and a direct to video Steven Seagal action flick from 2010. For Michael Roemer’s film, Vengeance Is Mine (1984), which he wrote and directed, the title might give the wrong impression. It is not a revenge […]

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 […]

Losing Ground (1982)

When we first see philosophy professor Sara (Seret Scott), she is lecturing to a classroom behind a lectern, glasses on and hair tied into a bun, discussing Jean-Paul Satre. This opening scene of Losing Ground (1982) might indicate that this will be a heady, intellectual film, but it’s really about peeling back the layers underneath […]

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 […]

Coma (2022)

Bedroom pop? Or bedroom shoegaze? More like bedroom darkwave. Dedicated in an opening narration to his 18 year old daughter, French director Bertrand Bonello made Coma (2022) during Covid lockdown and frames the teenage bedroom as its setting. Even with the alarms outside reiterating lockdown curfew, the sight of a teenager stuck in their bedroom, […]