Film Shapes

Here's a harrowing drama from director, Alice Diop, that's based on her own experience at the trial of a Senegalese-French woman who murdered her own 15 month-old daughter in 2013. It's nominally a courtroom drama, but it's like none I've seen before. In fact, the courtroom scenes are a framing device for our protagonist (Diop's surrogate), Rama, played with a calm intensity by artist Kayije Kagame, and her struggles with her own family situation. She's often seen in flashback as a kid dealing with her mother's apparent breakdown. I say apparent because this is one of the film's strengths - Diop doesn't spell things out for her audience. We, adults for the most part, are encouraged to draw our own summations on what's going on and why Rama is so encased in her own thoughts. Her mystery is mirrored by the more morally repugnant question of why the woman on trial, Laurence (Guslagie Malanda) would choose to commit infanticide. Both the leads ar...

This is a funny, sweary, extremely bloody take on the Dracula tale, focussing on his manservant, Renfield, and their 'complicated' relationship. It very much hangs on the casting, and the filmmakers have pulled an ace with Nic Cage as the Prince of Darkness. He's as hammy as he's ever been and his utterance of the word 'husk' is worth the ticket price alone. But, in theory, this is not Cage's film, as you might guess from the title. The lead is played by Nicholas Hoult and he's the perfect foil for Cage - meek and awkward (at least until he eats bugs), caring, to a degree, and loyal. Until now. It appears Renfield is having a few qualms about his role in the uneven partnership, and this has led him to attend a co-dependency therapy group based in a New Orleans church hall. The writers handle this scenario better than might be expected, with some melancholy accompanying the chuckles. This schism in Renfield's life is bound to displease his master and ...

This third 'volume' of the Guardians series of MCU films will likely be James Gunn's last behind the camera, and we'll all be sorry when he's gone. He has such a firm handle on things that it would probably be best for everyone if this actually is the final in the canon. As it stands, it's at least the equal of the first one, possibly even better - watching this feels like flopping down into a comfortably grungy couch. The story eschews the big picture, galactic-level shitstorms that have hampered many of the recent Marvel efforts. The focus of this film is Rocket and his thus-far concealed back-story. At the start of proceedings he's attacked on Knowhere by a glittering gold twat, Adam Warlock, who critically injures him and escapes after a fearsome tussle. In trying to treat the little fella, it's soon discovered that he has a 'kill switch' inbuilt and any attempt to save him will activate it. Jeepers, time for a mission. So Rocket spends most ...

Here's a fictionalised historical biopic of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, seen through the eyes of her lady-in-waiting, Irma Sztaray. The political background was where the interest lay for me, whether it was hubby Emperor Franz Joseph calling Sisi back to court, or bro-in-law Viktor talking about Viennese orgies, or the trick of using a look-alike to stand in as Empress, even an odd meeting with Queen Victoria, but this is all white noise in the grand scheme of the film. The relationship between Irma and Elisabeth (or Sisi) is the bedrock. They begin as employee and employer, albeit in a slightly dysfunctional workplace, but soon they become firm, with Irma especially discovering deep feelings for the ratbag royal. The film opens with Irma getting proper walloped by her horrid mother and shortly thereafter being seconded to Corfu to meet up with Sisi and her acolytes. Just when it felt like the majority of the film was going to be encased in this one locale, they up stumps to Alge...

This film won the best screenplay award at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival for writer/director, Tarek Saleh, and it's clear to see why. A young man from a fishing village in Egypt gets some news from his local Imam that he has been accepted to Al-Azhar University in Cairo - apparently, quite the honour. On his arrival he is chosen, perhaps for his callowness, to keep an eye on a group of Muslim Brotherhood chaps, who may or may not have had some hand in the death of a fellow student. There's also the small matter of the death of the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and, more pertinently to the government, who to replace him with. It's a belting little set-up, full of fish-out-of-water vibes and political/religious intrigue. In fact, the film is almost a carbon copy of Jacques Audiard's classic, A Prophet , but with more Islam. The central character, Adam, played with moist intensity by Tawfeek Barhom, is no mug, but he is naïve to the ways of the big city, and if you replace the Un...