The Irishman (2019)

The first time I watched I Heard You Paint Houses aka The Irishman (2019) was in a cinema thanks to The Backlot. When it ended, I felt like I had lived a lifetime and my head was heavy like a brick. Second viewing was weeks later on Netflix and it’s a long epic that carries […]

Atlantics (2019)

Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes this year, Atlantics (2019; Atlantique) has been released by Netflix to stream. The directorial debut of Mati Diop, the film is set in Dakar, Senegal, and observes the coastal terrain where a looming hotel is under construction in the distance. Initially the style of the film is docu-drama, […]

Zama (2017)

Set in the late 18th century, Zama (2017) is about Don Diego de Zama (Daniel Giménez Cacho), a magistrate working in a colonial outpost near the Paraguay River. The opening image sees him in a classic pose of authority, tricorne on his head, sword in his holster, gazing out at the water. The next two […]

Heaven’s Gate (1980)

I don’t have access to digital TV at home, so it was a delight to be in a hotel room in Wollongong, turn on the TV to SBS World Movies and see that Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate (1980) was coming up shortly, which I’d always been meaning to see. I remember reading MAD magazines from […]

Border (2018)

Winner of Un Certain Regard at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, the Swedish film Border (2018; Gräns) might also take the crown for weirdest sex scene in a movie. Directed by Ali Abbasi and based on a story written by John Ajvide Lindqvist, the author of Let The Right One In, which gives an indication […]