Pablo Larraín is a Chilean filmmaker of distinctive style. Much loved in art house circles, his films are often marked by slow narratives punctuated by arresting visuals – and occasionally violence. His latest film to reach these shores, Ema (actually made in 2019) follows a similar pattern. Larraín’s Jackie (2016) was one of my favourite…
The Moro Spanish Film Festival 2021 brings you a sensational selection of new and recent Spanish language films. The films feature some of Spain and Latin America’s leading stars along with exciting new acting talent. The festival opens from April 20 at Palace Cinemas around the country. The rich program consists of 20 feature films…
Director Cesc Gay adapts his own play in The People Upstairs, a dry comedy whose dialogue-heavy approach sublimely reveals shifting relationship dynamics. The film takes place entirely in a modern, slick apartment occupied by long-time couple Ana (Griselda Siciliani) and Julio (Javier Cámara). After 15 years, their relationship has grown stale which manifests itself with…
A gay Sliding Doors with subtitles? End of the Century is essentially a two-handed drama which serves up a meditation on relationships, the choices we make, and the fallibility of memory. Ocho (Juan Barberini), a fortysomething Argentine poet from New York on holiday in Barcelona, meets Javi (Ramon Pujol), a Berlin-based producer of a children’s…
A series of fine performances led by Carolina Sanín highlight the Colombian drama Litigante. Silvia (Sanín) is a single mother of a four-year-old son, Antonio (Antonio Martínez). Life is a constant struggle for her. She has a responsible job, as Deputy Legal Director of a government department. At the same time, she and her sister…
The Platform (El Hoyo) isn’t just a frightening movie. It’s a movie with a moral. A film that makes you think. Could you call it horror? You could have an extensive discussion about this. For some of the detainees who are locked up in the prison portrayed in this film, it’s indeed horror. It depends…
Master filmmaker Pedro Almodovar has crafted an intricate personal story that spans more than 50 years in Pain and Glory. Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas) is a veteran film director, afflicted by multiple ailments, the worst of which is his inability to continue filming. His physical condition doesn’t allow it and, if he can’t film again,…
Ricardo Darín (Wild Tales) and Mercedes Morán (The Motorcycle Diaries) play Marcos and Ana in An Unexpected Love. The long-married couple are led to question the true meaning of love after becoming empty-nesters. Their son Luciano (Andres Gil) is leaving his Argentine homeland to study abroad. When Marcos and Ana arrive at the airport to…
The Bar (El Bar) pretends to be a thriller comedy, but falls short on both levels. The film leans rather towards the comedy genre. But in terms of thriller, it’s a bit too weak. What’s actually the ultimate cause of the incident witnessed by a number of persons, isn’t really clear in the end. Are…
It’s rare that we get to see a film from Paraguay. It’s even rarer that this deeply conservative country would produce a film about two elderly lesbians whose relationship is undergoing something of a crisis. But that’s what we get in The Heiresses from writer/director Marcelo Martinessi. Chela (played by veteran theatre actress Anna Brun…
