A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Eastern European Films, North American Films
Carlton Meyer, “The 2014 American Coup in Ukraine” (Tales of the American Empire, 21 August 2020) A very timely release in Carlton Meyer’s Tales of the…
Australian and New Zealand Films
Alister Lockhart, Patrick Sarell, “Nullarbor” (2011) Across the longest stretch of straight road through the flat desert that is the Nullarbor Plain in southern Australia is…
Miguel de Olaso, Macgregor, Bruno Zacarias, “Los Angeles 1991” (2015) The tale seems contrived and some suspension of disbelief may be required but essentially this taut…
Latin American Films (Spanish language), North American Films
Josh Soskin, “La Carnada” (2014) In a poverty-stricken town in Mexico not far from the border with the United States, 13-year-old Manny (Angel Soto Jr) is…
Australian and New Zealand Films
Matt Richards, “The Disappearance of Willie Bingham” (2015) A truly unsettling short realist film about a bureaucracy gone insanely inhuman, pandering to the lowest common denominator…
Kaveh Mazaheri, “Retouch” (2017) A stunning character study of a married woman, submissive to her bullying husband, who is unexpectedly given a new lease of life…
Daniel Sorochkin, “Check Please” (2015) A man, Ben (Bryan Manley Davis), takes his girlfriend Laura (Amelia Brain) to evening dinner at a swish restaurant, planning to…
Tamar Glezerman, “Fill Your Heart with French Fries” (2016) Based on an actual incident in China, in which a woman jilted by her boyfriend ended up…
Max Silver, “Trunk Space” (2016) As surely as the sun rises in the east, birds fly in the sky and fish swim in the oceans, so…
Courtenay Johnson, “Last Requests” (2017) A sombre character study of a prison worker on her last day in a program that supplies last-request meals to death…