ROBOT DREAMS – ★★★☆

Nicely made animated film, seemingly set in an alternate universe version of 1980s New York inhabited by human-like animals. A lonely dog decides to order a robot to be his friend, and the film follows. Lots of cool little time appropriate references throughout – the first scene had me when the dog was playing Pong on an Atari like console. Also saw references to Commodore 64s and Tab cola. The robot itself was an ‘Amica 2000’, likely a reference to the Amiga 2000 computer. I felt like the film dragged a little in the middle in a situation that didn’t seem as complicated as it was presented. Had echoes of last night’s film ‘Past Lives’ dealing with relationships and how life can deal the unexpected. Worth a watch.

BLACKBIRD BLACKBIRD BLACKBERRY – ★★★☆

A Georgian film about a 48 year old woman living a simple village life, who has made a choice to me alone. After a near-death experience, she begins a secret relationship, but must fight against her village’s expectations of the norm; that she should be partnered, have children. It was perhaps a little slowly paced at times, but nicely presented, and showed the difficulty of balancing between competing desires, as well as making choices based on personal preference as opposed to external pressures. I would love to know what kind of cake it is she eats during a few of the scenes – it looked amazing! This is a film that stuck with me after watching, and this raised my rating.

FREMONT – ★★☆

Went to this with high hopes. Fremont is set in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I’ve visited several times, and it was billed as being Jim Jarmusch-like. The film itself didn’t really use much of the area as a backdrop, and I see the JJ reference, but don’t feel it grabbed me like many of his films have. Some of the acting felt a little forced; possibly the actors hadn’t done much before, though the role played by ‘The Bear” star Jeremy Allen White was well done. There were certainly some nice moments mixed in amongst the showing of difficulties for Afghan migrants in America.