Tributary Stu
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Movies of the Week #10 (2023)
Aftersun (2022): This father-daughter holiday is a throwback to the days of Macarena and Dr. Jones, of flimsy arcades and dodgy lodgings in foreign lands and, unfortunately, of underlying trauma. The movie drips with nostalgia within the warm haze of gentle summer days, but leaves a door ajar at the other side of which an… Read more
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Aftersun (2022): An Afterthought
Aftersun drips with nostalgia within the warm haze of gentle summer days, but leaves a door ajar through which the draught of an undefined existential menace lingers. The slow burn might be a challenge for some, but if you allow yourself to make the journey, the finale has good odds of tearing you apart. Read more
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Movies of the Week #9 (2023)
This week, Berlinale recap! Here (2023): At just 82 minutes, the movie is strikingly short. Especially if you get into its mood, it will lull you before you even realize it’s ending. We are so used to our urban jungles, that nature takes on ever more mystical qualities. In the world of Here, nature provides,… Read more
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Berlinale Review: Here (2023)
Here is a moment in time, the proverbial here and now, which is the most blissful place to exist in. It’s mischievously elusive, of course, but Bas Devos somehow manages to capture its essence in this movie, that has all the chances of growing on you and showing you true North. Read more
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Berlinale Review: Passages (2023)
The movie transcends type and finds the truth in its relationships, it dotes on and suffers with its protagonists in a manner that does feel intimate, both emotionally and physically. Sachs has congealed this inherently melodramatic story into one of stoic commitment to ourselves, of finding and cherishing our individuality, both within and outside of… Read more
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Berlinale Review: Sages-Femmes (2023)
Léa Fehner’s movie is an ode to the dedication of this mostly female staff, that rises above chronic underfunding, being overworked and managing complex situations, both professionally and personally. Read more
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Movies of the Week #8 (2023)
Close (2022): One of this year’s contenders for Best International Picture at the Oscars, Lukas Dhont’s testament to childhood friendships and their frailty is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. Two young teenage boys have their relationship tested by your usual high-school pressures and while we get a surface understanding of it, the movie… Read more
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Berlinale Review: Între Revoluţii (2023)
As the title denotes, this movie by Vlad Petri is set between two revolutions – the one in Iran in 1979 and the one in Romania ten years later. Our struggle for change is a constant one, that slices through history horizontally and vertically – meaning, through society, but also between individuals. Între revoluţii (en.… Read more
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Berlinale Review: Mammalia (2023)
It’s enough to give the trailer for Mammalia a quick watch in order to get a sense of what an otherworldly experience it is going to be. This is Sebastian Mihailescu’s second feature and it highlights the Romanian director as a remarkable experimentalist. The plot is straightforward – a man goes looking for his partner,… Read more
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Movies of the Week #7 (2023)
L’inferno (1911): I’m noticing a pattern – when I do watch a movie made a hundred years ago or more, it’s the technical ambitions that impress me the most. Dante’s Inferno feels like cinema, it’s daring, effects heavy and visually imposing. I’ve never read the Divine Comedy, but following Virgil and Dante into the depths… Read more
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Movies of the Week #6 (2023)
Kurz und Schmerzlos (1998): Fatih Akin’s feature debut is the kind of friendship/mafia movie that felt thematically relevant in the 90s and 00s. Three criminally inclined pals of differing origins in multi-culti Hamburg struggle to find a meaningful way through life, living on the edge of wrongdoing and love (how does that joke go, a… Read more
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Movies of the Week #5 (2023)
Unrelated (2007): While still pussyfooting about The Souvenir: Part II, I dug deep and found myself watching Joanna Hogg’s debut feature film. As an added bonus, this also happens to be the non-TV debut of Tom Hiddleston. The movie tells of forty-something Anna (Kathryn Worth), who is struggling with mid-life things while on holiday in… Read more
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