Category Archives: International

The Eight Mountains review — A gorgeous, lyrical film about friendship

June 1, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch | Written by van Groeningen and Vandermeersch, adapting the novel by Paolo Cognetti | 147 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Carbon Arc Cinema Two 11-year-old boys meet when one, who lives in Turin, spends summers in Grana, near Asti, Italy, in the Italian Alps. It's astonishingly beautiful there,…Read More

What’s Love Got To Do With It? review — Culture clash works better than the romance

May 20, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Shekhar Kapur | Written by Jemima Khan | 108 min | ▲▲▲△△ Best known as the director of Bandit Queen, the movie that made Cate Blanchett a star, Elizabeth, and it's sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, a romantic comedy might seem an unlikely project for the Indian filmmaker, but it's actually got a lot…Read More

Polite Society review — Not polite about kicking ass!

May 6, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Nida Manzoor | 103 min | ▲▲▲▲△ When I saw the amazing Rye Lane on Disney+ last month, I would not have predicted another comedy coming out of a London suburban immigrant enclave would knock my socks off, but here we are. With this film what we have is less a…Read More

The Five Devils review — French fantasy illuminates real life concerns

April 27, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Léa Mysius | Written by Mysius and Paul Guilhaume | 95 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Carbon Arc Cinema Here's an odd one, but a film that is certain to tickle the fancy of anyone who has time for a little magic realism and the strange, intangible connections between a mother, daughter, and aunt.…Read More

Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre review — Fizzy action cocktail, hold the caring

April 22, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Guy Ritchie | Written by Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies | 114 min | ▲▲△△△ | Amazon Prime The painful and much postponed journey of this action comedy from bad boy Brit director Guy Ritchie to the (small) screen might make for a more entertaining picture than this one. Apparently, this awkwardly…Read More

Rye Lane review — The freshest romcom in ages

April 13, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Raine Allen-Miller | Written by Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia | 82 min | ▲▲▲▲▲ | Disney + Dom (David Jonsson) has just been dumped by his girlfriend who cheated on him with his best friend. When we meet him he's crying his heart out in an art gallery's unisex bathroom. Yas (Vivian…Read More

Cinema Sabaya review — Video class builds bridges

April 12, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Orit Fouks Rotem | 91 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Carbon Arc Cinema An Israeli-Belgian co-pro with an impressive docudrama heft — it's shot with all the authenticity of a documentary but is entirely fictional. Eight women — Israeli and Arab — gather to take a how-to video course but learn a…Read More

Godland review — Looking into the unforgiving face of a godless land

April 7, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Hlynur Pálmason | 143 min | ▲▲▲△△ | Carbon Arc Cinema From the director of A White, White Day comes fascinating, occasionally confounding, and glacial drama about faith, religion, and colonialism, set against the elemental landscape of Iceland in the late 19th Century. The Church of Denmark sends a young priest,…Read More

Full River Red review — A bloody, convoluted historical thriller (and comedy)

March 25, 2023 flawintheiris

Original title: Manjianghong | Directed by Yimou Zhang | Written by Zhang and Yu Chen | 159 min | ▲▲▲△△ Chinese filmmaker Yimou Zhang is a master of epic period thrillers like The Great Wall, Hero, and House of Flying Daggers, and here is again with a single-location comedy-mystery based on historical fact, with the entire…Read More

Emily review — Brontë biopic unpacks gothic myth

March 5, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Frances O'Connor | 130 min | ▲▲▲△△ A fresh literary biopic has washed up on our cinematic shores, and I confess walking into the screening room I wasn't altogether excited about it. The conceit that something essential about the canon of classic lit can be gleaned by watching a fictionalization of…Read More