IDENTIFYING FEATURES – ★★★

Mexican film about a mother trying to find out what happened to her son, after he left home and hasn’t been heard from for two months. Takes a couple of twists and uses sound to create good atmosphere, but mostly a slow moving journey. Very nicely filmed, but a little bit hard to follow at some points.

ELLIE & ABBIE (& ELLIE’S DEAD AUNT) – ★★★★

Romantic comedy about a high school girl coming out to her mum, and the path towards going to the school formal with the object of her affection. Helped along the way by the ghost of her lesbian aunt. This probably doesn’t really deserve four stars; it wasn’t bad by any stretch, but did feel like it kind of lost its way from a story point of view around 2/3s in. That said, I think it’s an important and necessary film for a younger audience, just to represent the many high school kids who need something like this – a film that promotes and accepts LGBT as a normal part of society.