It's been a nice week, hanging out with friends, celebrating the new year and watching very few films. I had a couple more to watch before finalising my
lists of the best and worst of 2024, but I didn't go crazy trying to see everything. I'll be catching up on more over the coming weeks, and they'll enter the fray for 2025. The starriest one I watched this week was Joshua Oppenheimer's epic musical
The End, with Tilda Swinton, George MacKay and Michael Shannon. It's about a family living underground two decades after society collapsed, and it has a lot to say about several massive topics. Although over two and a half hours it becomes a little numbing.
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BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Nickel Boys • Nosferatu
We Live in Time
2073 • What I Am Not
ALL REVIEWS > |
Meanwhile, Jeremy Saulnier's
Rebel Ridge was a very nice surprise. Despite the blunt title, the film is a nuanced, thoughtful dramatic thriller about a guy whose specialty is de-escalating violence. Aaron Pierre is terrific in the lead role, as is Don Johnson as the backwoods Louisiana police chief running a very dodgy operation. Well worth a look even if the plot is a bit swampy. There were also two acclaimed documentaries: the shattering
Sugarcane uses personal stories to skilfully recount stories of child abuse in Catholic schools for indigenous children in Canada. And
Grand Theft Hamlet is an inventive, enjoyable film tracing the attempt to stage Shakespeare's play within the murderous virtual world of
Grand Theft Auto.
This coming week press screenings will start up again with Claes Bang in
William Tell, Nick Frost in
Get Away, Laura Calamy in
It's Raining Men and the Lithuanian drama
The Writer.
