A sensitively-drawn debut feature about a trans-child who must navigate burgeoning notions of gender identity amid confusing signals sent by her family, shot in a naturalistic style befitting the very nature of self-discovery.
Black sardonic humour abounds in this tale about the farce of capital punishment when a man is forced to marry an executioner’s daughter and has to become one himself in order to keep the apartment allotted by the state.
Serra’s latest ‘slow cinema’ effort is at times hypnotic and beguiling, though it isn’t always consistently rewarding as he weaves a tale set in Tahiti about a stagnating High Commissioner who becomes privy to the prospect of something unimaginably nightmarish happening to his beloved French Polynesian island.
French New Wave icon Jean-Pierre Leaud lies bedridden for two hours in Albert Serra’s exquisite, slow-burning 18th-century take on the agonising final days of the famous Sun King, shot with such a high fidelity to history that one might mistake it for documentary authenticity.
A decent Spanish comedy that pokes fun at the film industry, acting and the creative process, benefiting from the wonderful charisma of its trio of actors.
This finely-tuned Berlinale Golden Bear winner recalls the spirit of Rohrwacher’s The Wonders, showcasing a close-knitted inter-generational Spanish family of peach farmers who face the threat of eviction from their land.
A mid-tier Almodovar as he weaves a story of mothers and babies against a dark national history—it doesn’t always find a sure footing in terms of tone and theme, but the indelible performances and the auteur’s knack for creating suspense out of melodrama do help.
Almodovar’s Stockholm syndrome drama will probably be cancelled if made today, but while it isn’t a home run by his provocative standards, it features two impressionable performances by Antonio Banderas and Victoria Abril.
Even a master filmmaker can misfire big time in this shallow and messy star-studded stab at telling the narrative of the infamous ‘Cuban Five’.
Not top-tier Almodovar, but he fashions an unsettling, and at times, outlandish treatment on both psychological and gender identities.
Eternality Tan 