This year’s selection of Women in Film shorts offered up a rich and varied experience. It is impressive that all five films, being shown in quick succession, managed to stay so clearly distinct from one another, even now, as I reflect on this event in the week following. The opening film, Helen Simmons and Julia Cranney’s Measure (2023), follows a mother, Jen (Callie Cooke), taking her autistic son to…
Written by Patricia Xu “I’ve learned to value ordinary life. And I still have a wish to portray that.” – Hirokazu Koreeda Hirokazu Koreeda is one of the greatest contemporary Japanese directors of this generation. Often being considered as the next Yasujiro Ozu, his masterpiece films show gentle, heart-warming, yet bitter sides of human life. Koreeda was born in Tokyo, Japan. Influenced by his mother’s love of watching films, he…
Review by Patricia Xu A Korean family makes a new start in Arkansas in the 1980s, where they find new challenges and struggles in the farming business and from within the family itself. The film beautifully balances their harsh reality with heart-warming and bitter moments. Nominated for six Oscars, Minari stands tall as one of the best films this year offers. Directed by Lee Isaac Chung, Minari is a beautiful…
To celebrate International Women’s Day, NFF volunteer Rhiannon Talbot-Arnold takes a look at the fruitful message underneath the skin of Sean Baker’s 2015 film Tangerine and explains why it’s more relevant than ever, even five years since the film’s release. Tangerine’s premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival sparked a flurry of critical commentary; critics were astounded over the reveal that the film was shot entirely between three iPhone 5s smartphones.…
Confessions (natively known as Kokuhaku) is a difficult film to review as a single picture, since it really doesn’t feel like it is one. The 2010 revenge-focused crime/mystery thriller, directed by former comedy filmmaker Tetsuya Nakashima, is crafted with a clear split in the narrative at around the thirty-minute mark. At this point, the story being told largely wraps up in a satisfying and cathartic way, leaving few questions unanswered.…
At our previous festival in November 2019, we were thrilled to host a screening of The Souvenir, along with a specially-filmed introduction from Honor Swinton Byrne and a post-screening Q&A with Crispin Buxton, the film’s Locations Manager & Associate Producer. Here is a review of the screening written by one of our volunteers, Phil Longwell… There is a pivotal moment about one third of the way through Joanna Hogg’s latest film,…
The hardest part about discussing Andhadhun (2018) is the fact that there is no way to explain any aspects of the plot without somewhat ruining it. Any attempt at simplification ends up giving an inaccurate depiction of the story, yet any more than minimal detail will likely spoil at least three of the twists in the plot. Even the innocuous synopsis “a suspenseful crime-thriller revolving around a blind musician getting…
Almodovar’s latest masterpiece, Pain and Glory – otherwise known as Dolor y Gloria, is a thought provoking indulgence into the intimate parts of life; as have all of his preceding films. Almodovar has managed to craft a story which precisely harks pain from past and present whilst also seeing the characters revel in glory simultaneously. Pain and Glory sets itself apart from other works as it is able to meander…
If ever a film was a perfect interpretation of an oxymoron then Midsommar (2019) is that film! Chaotically peaceful and beautifully traumatic thematically plague the narrative of this macabre Scandi scare; doing so to unnerving effect. Detached from Aster’s previous work (HEREDITARY 2017)), his recent endeavour into the disturbed and deranged tells a potentially darker story through the veil of an abundance of sunlight. Midsommar opens with breathtaking stills of…
The Norwich Film Festival 2018 offered a selection of short films on their Friday Night’s Alright for Shorts event, all of which offered their own charms and delights. First up was Catch of the Day, a magical realist tale of a lifelong love and what life includes and excludes. Shot on the ravishingly beautiful Welsh coast and delivered entirely in the Welsh language, Catch of the Day (pictured below) transports…