LITTLE MEN ★★★★

Wonderful film set in Brooklyn, and about two young (13-ish) boys who are a little different to the regular kids and form a friendship. My biggest disappointment was falling asleep for about 15 minutes in the middle of it (due to tiredness, not boredom) and missing some plot points. Will definitely be re-watching this again when I have the chance.

HELL OR HIGH WATER ★★★☆

A not bad modern day ‘western’ or sorts, set in Texas. Two brothers set out to right the wrongs of the banks, who have very little respect amongst the people. Nicely paced (for a western) and with some great characters throughout.

MERCENARY ★★★☆ 

Nicely shot French film about a pacific islander rugby player trying to make a go of it in a minor league team in France. Had a really nice, slow pace (in a good way), and reasonable story. It kind of echoed Mahana in the sense of an iron-fisted patriarch dominating the lives of his offspring and how they managed to cope and keep going in spite of it.

GIRLFRIENDS ★★★

I read that this 1970s film inspired the HBO show ‘Girls’, and you can really tell when watching it. I almost walked out about halfway through, but stuck it through and glad that I did. The film quality was t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e. Dirty and blurry, but I guess that’s what you get with low budget 40 year+ old indie films.

MAHANA ★★★☆

I really enjoyed this New Zealand film about feuding families. Very well acted, nice shots of NZ’s beautiful countryside, and a pretty good story too. It could have easily scored a little higher if it didn’t have plot points that felt like it needed to tie everything up neatly by the end. (the shearing competition for example felt a bit jarring to me). Worth a look though. 

SUBURRA ★★

An Italian mafia film that promised to be high action. I love mafia films (Godfather, Goodfellas, etc), so I was looking forward to this. I guess it had action, but this was painful to watch. All the characters were completely unlikeable, and other than everyone just being assholes to each other, it didn’t really feel like there was a story to tell amongst the constance violence. 

GIRL ASLEEP  ★★  

Australian film that seemed to suffer an identity crisis. Couldn’t figure out it if it was a Wes Anderson film, Donnie Darko, or Muriel’s Wedding/Strictly Ballroom. Volume was way up too loud (said the old man) for this session, too. I dunno, it just seemed to be trying too hard, and relying on original techniques that had already been done to tell a story of a girl starting at a new school and the friend she makes there.