THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING – ★★★★
One of my favourites of the festival so far. Very well made film with excellent acting as always by Tilda Swinton. She plays an academic of narrative who believes stories are a method to handle the lack of science, but then finds a bottle containing a Djinn.
THE EXAM – ★★☆
Melodramatic Kurdish film about a girl who wants to pass her exams so she doesn’t have to be forced into an arranged marriage. They seem to go to incredible efforts to cheat rather than spending time studying. This one didn’t do it for me.
EVERYBODY LOVES JEANNE – ★★★☆
Easygoing romance about a French woman who faces a career crisis and returns to Portugal after many years away to sell her deceased mother’s apartment. Very nice use of animations to represent the voice inside her head.
EMILY THE CRIMINAL – ★★★★
Good crime/drama/thriller starring Aubrey Plaza showing the type of American employment situations that would act as perfect fodder for /r/AntiWork, and how the lead will go to significant effort to try and get ahead.
THE HUMANS – ★☆
My first walk out for MIFF 2022. I guess this film about a somewhat dysfunctional family going on and on about themselves doesn’t remind you enough of your own regular experiences, perhaps this might appeal. A surprising disappointment, given the talent of the cast.
FALCON LAKE – ★★★☆
Nicely made French-Canadian coming of age film set on a lake. A summer is spent with a visiting family sharing a cabin with family friends who own it, and the story focuses on the friendship that forms between a near-14 year old boy and a 16 year old girl. Did a reasonable job of showing the awkwardness of the age, with a couple of minor slips in the story for me, but mostly hits the right notes.
MILLIE LIES LOW – ★★★
Was looking forward to this New Zealand comedy. Its premise was of an architecture student who wins a scholarship to work in New York, suffers a panic attack on the plane, and ends up staying in Wellington, trying to pretend she’s in NY to her friends and family. This one had a good concept, but was a bit of a mixed bag, and didn’t seem to know whether it was a bleak-ish drama or a comedy. Ultimately it was hard to be on-side with any of the flawed characters, and many of the plot points weren’t entirely watertight.
CHILDREN OF THE MIST – ★★★☆
Vietnamese documentary about a remote village, where the a courtship ritual for marriage that consists of 14 year old girls being kidnapped and then pushed into marriage with their kidnapper is not unusual. This was filmed over three years and shows the conflict of old ‘tradition’ against a more modern set of thinking, thanks to a school that tries to educate people to behave in better ways. Deeply troubling scenes as you see the main subject’s parents participating in the old way, with obvious protest by the subject herself.
COSTA BRAVA, LEBANON – ★★★★
Eight years after disconnecting from society by moving to a remote area away from others, a Lebanese family has society come to them, when a garbage dump is built literally outside their front yard. Wonderful portrayal of the families relationships with each other, society, and a bigger lesson about the greater risks of not respecting the land we live on. If you liked Digger (MIFF 2022) this one is worth a look.
MY OLD SCHOOL – ★★★☆
Documentary about a new student who attends a high school in Scotland, and the secret that is discovered after his year there. It was an entertaining and often funny film, though I felt like it could have been edited a little better to get to the grand reveal sooner, and have less recounting of the same information after it. Worth a watch, but certainly doesn’t require seeing it on a big screen. I’ve added Jon Cryer’s ‘Hiding Out’ to my list of films to re-watch.
