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Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival · 2019

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2019

Midnight Shivers

Programme

10 films · 6 reviews

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After Midnight (Something Else)

Review preview for After Midnight

The sweetness in this film and its lightness of touch are utterly beguiling. Nothing you can do will prepare you for the way it ends.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A man struggles with loneliness, the possible collapse of his relationship and the fact that every night a monster tries to break into his house.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Jeremy Gardner, Christian Stella; Writer: Jeremy Gardner; Stars: Henry Zebrowski, Justin Benson, Brea Grant, Jeremy Gardner)

Full review

Baskin

Review preview for Baskin

Its plot is more cleverly structured than is at first apparent, and although it seems to lose its way part way through, there's always something going on upstairs.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A squad of unsuspecting cops goes through a trapdoor to Hell after stumbling upon a Black Mass in an abandoned building.

(Country: Turkey, US; Year: 2015; Director: Can Evrenol; Writer: Ogulcan Eren Akay, Can Evrenol; Stars: Muharrem Bayrak, Mehmet Akif Budak, Fadik Bülbül, Derin Cankaya, Mehmet Cerrahoglu)

Full review

Deerskin (Le Daim)

Review preview for Deerskin

The director proves a master of the tragicomic as he observes one man's slip from midlife crisis to madness by way of obsession.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Georges, 44, and his jacket, 100 per cent deerskin, have a plan.

(Country: France; Year: 2019; Director: Quentin Dupieux; Writer: Quentin Dupieux; Stars: Jean Dujardin, Adèle Haenel, Albert Delpy, Pierre Gommé, Laurent Nicolas, Coralie Russier, Stéphane Jobert, Franck Lebreton, Marie Bunel, Panayotis Pascot, Youssef Hajdi, Simon Thomas, Tom Hudson, Maryne Cayon, Thomas Blanchard)

Full review See: Quentin Dupieux in conversation on Deerksin

First Love (Hatsukoi)

Set over one night in Tokyo, we follow Leo, a young boxer down on his luck as he meets his ‘first love’ Monica, a call girl and an addict but still an innocent. Little does Leo know, Monica is unwittingly caught up in a drug-smuggling scheme, and the two are pursued through the night by a corrupt cop, a yakuza, his nemesis, and a female assassin sent by the Chinese Triads.

(Country: Japan, UK; Year: 2019; Director: Takashi Miike; Writer: Masaru Nakamura; Stars: Masataka Kubota, Nao Omori, Shota Sometani, Sakurako Konishi, Becky, Jun Murakami, Sansei Shiomi, Seiyo Uchino)

The Golden Glove

Portrait of the infamous serial killer Fritz Honka.

(Country: Germany, France; Year: 2019; Director: Fatih Akin; Writer: Fatih Akin, Heinz Strunk; Stars: Marc Hosemann, Adam Bousdoukos, Jonas Dassler, Tristan Göbel, Margarete Tiesel, Katja Studt, Hark Bohm, Philipp Baltus, Victoria Trauttmansdorff, Uwe Rohde, Dirk Böhling, Lars Nagel, Marc Hosemann, Adam Bousdoukos, Jonas Dassler)

Happy Times (Nitra'e BeSmachot)

Over the course of a Shabbat dinner at a fancy Hollywood Hills mansion, a toxic mix of alcohol, egos, cultural differences, lust and greed derails the evening.

(Country: US, Israel; Year: 2019; Director: Michael Mayer; Writer: Guy Ayal, Michael Mayer; Stars: Shani Atias, Michael Aloni, Iris Bahr, Stéfi Celma, Rigo Obezo, Kevin Thoms, Guy Adler, Griffin Kramer, Sophia Santi, Mike Burstyn, Liraz Chamami, Daniel Lavid, Alon Pdut, Ido Mor, Shani Atias)

Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway

Review preview for Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway

Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway reboots the genre by both using and subverting its conventions.

Jane Fae · 3.5 out of 5
Two CIA agents are tasked with the perilous mission of destroying the Soviet Union, but as they enter a VR simulation their mission turns into a delirious trap, with the fabric of reality unravelling around them

(Country: Spain, Estonia, Ethiopia; Year: 2019; Director: Miguel Llansó; Writer: Miguel Llansó; Stars: Agustín Mateo, Daniel Tadesse, Guillermo Llansó)

Full review

The Lighthouse

Review preview for The Lighthouse

The trouble with all this mood, is that it eventually gets laid on too thick.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A tale of two lighthouse keepers on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2019; Director: Robert Eggers; Writer: Max Eggers, Robert Eggers; Stars: Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe)

Full review

The Lodge

Review preview for The Lodge

The Lodge hinges on a powerhouse performance from Keough, who inhabits the troubled Grace so completely that we can stay with her even as her ability to distinguish what's real and what isn't breaks down.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A young woman and her reticent new stepchildren find themselves isolated in the family’s remote winter cabin, locked away to dredge up the mysteries of her dark past.

(Country: UK, US; Year: 2019; Director: Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz; Writer: Sergio Casci, Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz; Stars: Richard Armitage, Riley Keough, Alicia Silverstone, Jaeden Lieberher, Lia McHugh, Katelyn Wells, Lola Reid)

Full review

The Wolf Wood (Myslennyy volk)

A story about the attitudes of a mother and daughter deprived of love.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2019; Director: Valeriya Gay Germanika; Writer: Yuriy Arabov; Stars: Yuliya Vysotskaya, Liza Klimova, Asya Ozturk, Yuriy Turbin, Fyodor Lavrov, Yuliya Vysotskaya, Liza Klimova, Asya Ozturk, Yuriy Turbin, Fyodor Lavrov)