RADIO DREAMS ★☆
A film about a Persian radio station in San Francisco, and how they’re hoping to bring together Afghanistan’s first rock band together in the studio with Metallica. Scattered and only slightly entertaining, by the time the cameo occurs, you barely care that it happened.

LIFE, ANIMATED ★★★☆
A wonderful documentary about a young autistic man who, in his early 20s, is leaving home to live by himself. The film goes into his history, going from non-verbal to a functioning member of society through his love of Disney films. Lots of nice moments in this, as well as helping to promote understanding about autism and people who suffer from it.

THE SALESMAN ★★★☆
An Iranian film which I liked more and more after it was over. One night when the husband is out, someone attacks his wife in their home. This is a real conversation starter in regards to the difficulties into attacks on women in society and the various stake holders – the husband in this case regularly acting with little regard to his wife’s feelings. I’ve not seen Death of a Salesman (a play which both the husband and wife are involved with), and I presume some analogies would be drawn if I had.

HIGH-RISE ★☆
The first half hour of this film was awesome, and I thought we were going to have a new contendor for my favourite MIFF film for the year. Set in a brutalist high-rise apartment block, the 70s style set design was just incredible. The filmwork was also great, and the style was a little reminiscent of The Prisoner (as in 1960s UK The Prisoner, not the Australian women’s jail one). And then, it just came crashing down into a fumbling piece of pretty much unwatchable mess. Such a big disappointment, I’d give 4.5 stars for the first 30 minutes and zero after that. I know that the apartment block was meant to be an analogy of society, what with different classes of people depending on the level of the tower, but it didn’t need to just go into plotless violence and debauchery for 1.5 hours with no clear story to tell.