Week In, Week Out
Weekly collections of five mini-reviews capturing a wide range of films—old and new, obscure and iconic. A personal film journal in snapshots, offering quick, insightful takes on whatever’s been on the screen lately.
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Movies of The Week #13 (2023)
Un beau matin (2022): In the skilled hands of Mia Hansen-Løve, a film with not much happening in terms of plot becomes a series of insightful snapshots of the little moments that make up life. Un beau matin is ultimately exactly that, one particular, peaceful moment in a world of turbulences, where time stands still… Read more
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Movies of the Week #12 (2023)
The Tied Up Balloon (1967): There have been many balloon-related headlines recently, so why not check out a balloon-themed movie? This little allegorical piece by Binka Zhelyazkova takes us to a Bulgarian village where a mysterious balloon comes flying about and the locals immediately contemplate potential ways of making material use of it. The balloon… Read more
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Review: Spre Nord (2022)
Mincan proves a patient storyteller with flair for the cinematic, be it in the wide shots of the unnerving ocean, or the claustrophobic mazes on the container-laden vessel. Anchored in particular by Cruz’s performance, To the North takes a hard look at our shared sense of humanity and finds it lacking, but for reasons that… Read more
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Movies of the Week #11 (2023)
Decision to Leave (2022): IMDb says this is a “crime, drama, mystery” movie. Seriously, no romance? It basically portrays all my romantic conceits in a narratively enticing and visually enrapturing manner, very differently from The Handmaiden, but just as effective. The plot sounds almost banal: a detailist and sleepless detective comes across a mysterious case… Read more
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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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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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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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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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Movies of the Week #4 (2023)
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021): Hamaguchi directed two big Japanese movies released 2021, this and the Oscar winner for best international picture, Drive My Car. For whatever reason, WoFaF came up first on my watchlist and so I indulged myself with the three kinda-romantic shorts about, as the trailer puts it, coincidence and imagination.… Read more
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Movies of the Week #3 (2023)
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920): One of my goals this year is to fill some of my big cinematic knowledge gaps, starting with bona fide classics, particularly from the first half of last the 1900s. Robert Wiene’s Caligari, even seen outside context, immediately feels like a clever movie, whose plot might be familiar to… Read more
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