QUEEN OF GLORY – ★★☆

Film about an African American woman who is deep in academia, dating a married man who’s about to move across the country, and who she intends to follow. But then her mother, who runs a Christian bookshop, dies and the film tells the story of how she changes. Unfortunately, I didn’t really see what the message was that this film was trying to portray. It felt like it might be that women are better off being at home, serving their family (in this case, her estranged father), and running a bookshop, rather than being self-thinking and independent. Well acted by the lead, but otherwise it didn’t really grab me.

BULLETPROOF – ★★★☆

I knew I would feel my blood pressure rising watching this documentary about how American high schools are taking measures to protect their students from mass shootings and gun violence. And it did. I liked how this film was made without any narration, merely presenting various scenes and talking heads discussing the concerns and how they were doing what was needed to protect kids. Here’s a clue though: how about removing the weird fixation on guns in the first place? That might help save a lot of lives, expense, and time on reactive measures like bulletproof whiteboards and hoodies.

SMOOTH TALK – ★★★

Great to see Laura Dern early in her acting career, and as this is from 1985 some of the scenes at the mall for historical sake. It’s about a 15 year old girl who is starting to realise that she’s attractive to men, and her balance between being a girl and a woman. Worth watching for the above reasons, but otherwise okay to miss.

ALL LIGHT, EVERYWHERE – ★★☆

Documentary that investigated the use of vision and cameras throughout the ages, and discussed the flaws and concerns amongst that. Whether it was tracking the path of Venus against the Sun in the late 1800s, or modern body cam technology used by the police. It posed some interesting questions, and was very creatively put together. You could see how much work went into making it something a little different. I appreciated that. However, I found it a little cerebral at points, and felt like I was missing some of the message it was trying to portray. It could be that I was just a bit tired though.

AZOR – NO RATING

Couldn’t finish it. I love many Argentinian films, and was looking forward to this one, but it was just too much talking without context. I couldn’t piece together who the characters were, or what the story was. I probably didn’t give it a fair enough chance. Maybe lockdown fatigue is setting in and just becoming fatigue.

PALAZZO DI COZZO – ★★★

Documentary about Franco Cozzo, the Melbourne king of gaudy handmade Italian furniture. Growing up in Melbourne his ads were pretty famous, but I never desired owning a piece, nor did anyone I know. I suspect that in a sense, he was a meme before Internet memes were a thing. It was easy to watch, but I felt like there were some opportunities lost. It felt like there might have a been a story that could have been a universal interest story for an International audience, but ultimately it didn’t really deliver on that. All we really got was that he was famous for the ads, and that to some extent time had moved on and the demand for his style of furniture has dissipated. I’d have liked the documentary to dive a little deeper, but instead it kind of felt like an advertisement for the man and his furniture store.

THE MACALUSO SISTERS – ★★☆

An Italian film about five sisters. I was a little bit tired watching this, so maybe I missed some key points, but it felt like huge chunks of story were missing. I’m not clear where their parents were, but due to a tragic event at the beach while they were young, we see the how the event had a destructive result on the family over three eras of time. Didn’t really grab me.