A vital and affecting exposé of a horrifying system. The filmmaker takes us inside a centre where Filipino women are trained to work as maids overseas, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). The whole situation is horrible, the women are preparing to be sent off into slavery - given a meagre wage for exploitative contracts that they … Continue reading Overseas (Review)
Tag: opinion
The Dig (Review)
The best way to describe Simon Stone’s film about the monumental discovery at Sutton Hoo in 1939 is through the metaphor of a dig itself. This is something that was definitely worth uncovering - you can tell there’s gold here. However, in approaching this project, Stone has dug too widely and only scratched the surface … Continue reading The Dig (Review)
Citadel (Review)
The short film shot from a filmmaker’s room during lockdown has already become somewhat of a cliché (Mati Diop’s In My Room being a highlight of the genre). This view out of a London window during Covid lockdown fits firmly into that category, but filmmaker John Smith adds a political edge that makes this stand … Continue reading Citadel (Review)
Hamilton (Review)
The concrete legacy of Hamilton will always be important: giving starring roles to people of colour and putting them on the biggest broadway stage, a stage that was hitherto dominated by whiteness and homogeneity. Though this is no saviour of theatre, and has done little to inspire similar shows in its wake, it did provide … Continue reading Hamilton (Review)
About Endlessness (Review)
Nobody makes films like Roy Andersson. The only issue with this is that Roy Andersson repeatedly makes films like Roy Andersson, and his style is so specific that its utter uniqueness becomes, paradoxically, repetitive. Each Roy Andersson film is like nothing else but, since 2000’s Songs from the Second Floor, each following film has been … Continue reading About Endlessness (Review)
Rocks (Review)
This pitch perfect evocation of teenage life (specially teenage girls and primarily people of colour) ends with this statement in the credits: ‘The cast and many other young Londonds collaborated with the writers and filmmakers to create the characters and world of our film.’ This collaborative approach, an ethos further enforced by the want to … Continue reading Rocks (Review)
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Review)
At the heart of this adaptation of August Wilson’s stage play are two phenomenal performances. Viola Davis stars as the titular Ma Rainey and Chadwick Boseman (whose tragic death hangs heavy over this film, his final film) as jazz trumpeter Levee. Boseman is just outstanding here, his performance is loud and powerful, but marked by … Continue reading Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Review)
Soul (Review)
There is a lot going on in Pixar’s Soul, which is somewhat of a problem. It is an ambitious film with existential aspirations which, to an extent, go unfulfilled and weigh things down. The very heart of this film, its soul perhaps, is touching and charming; it is just that there is too much surrounding … Continue reading Soul (Review)
Wolfwalkers (Review)
To begin with, Wolfwakers seems overtly familiar. We are in a medieval fantasy world in which a tyrannical ruler is trying to destroy nature (the surrounding woodlands) to extend their rule and nature is fighting back, in this film in the form of routine wolf attacks. It is a man versus nature setup, an overt … Continue reading Wolfwalkers (Review)
Time (Review)
Most critiques of the criminal justice system focus on how it lets down the innocent. This documentary, Time, focuses instead on how it mistreat the guilty, and is a stronger critique because of this. In a way, this is similar to Kieslowski’s masterpiece (one of his many) A Short Film About Killing, where showing how … Continue reading Time (Review)
Assorted Opinions 