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New Directors/New Films — A–Z of films

2022

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  • Children Of The Mist
    Review preview for Children Of The Mist

    I have been discomfited watching films before but the anguish here is so genuinely and affectingly captured that it is almost unbearable.

    Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
    Documentary about the indigenous Hmong ethnic minority in Vietnam's northern mountainous region, focusing on a youngster who faces the prospect of an unsettling matrimonial custom.

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  • Dos Estaciones
    Review preview for Dos Estaciones

    While the framing of cinematographer Gerardo Guerra has a steady calm, González uses every inch of it from side to side and top to bottom to such a consummate degree that even the subtitles have to make way at one point.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
    In the bucolic hills of Mexico's Jalisco highlands, iron-willed businesswoman Maria Garcia fights the impending collapse of her tequila factory.
  • Fire Of Love
    Review preview for Fire Of Love

    The force of nature comes to stunning, searing life thanks to the Kraffts' footage, whether it is rivers of magma or gouts of smoke, with the film gradually building the case that they knew exactly the impact of what they were committing to camera would be.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
    Intrepid scientists and lovers Katia and Maurice Krafft died in a volcanic explosion doing the very thing that brought them together: unraveling the mysteries of volcanoes by capturing the most explosive imagery ever recorded. A doomed love triangle between Katia, Maurice and volcanoes, told through their archival footage.
  • Full Time
    Review preview for Full Time

    Gravel cleverly works the tempo, so we feel the occasional moments when Julie almost gets to relax, but that keep being snatched from her, more acutely.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
    Julie goes to great lengths to raise her two children in the countryside while keeping her job in a Parisian luxury hotel. When she finally gets a job interview for a position she had long been hoping for, a national strike breaks out, leading to a race against time.
  • Happening
    Review preview for Happening

    Diwan lets the cold hard facts trickle in as weeks are marked off at the bottom of the screen.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    France, 1963. Anne is a bright young student with a promising future ahead of her. But when she falls pregnant, she sees the opportunity to finish her studies and escape the constraints of her social background disappearing.

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  • The Innocents
    Review preview for The Innocents

    The subtlety Vogt employs as a director pays off in spades as he gets as much creepy mileage from the disturbance of soil and water as any amount of CGI could muster.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    During the bright Nordic summer, a group of children reveal their dark and mysterious powers when the adults aren't looking.

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  • Nanny
    Review preview for Nanny

    The lighting used by cinematographer Rina Yang is some of the best I can recall in an American independent film since Moonlight.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    Aisha is an undocumented nanny working for a privileged couple in New York City. As she prepares for the arrival of the son she left behind in Senegal, a violent supernatural presence invades her reality, threatening the American dream she is painstakingly piecing together.
  • Once Upon A Time In Calcutta
    Review preview for Once Upon A Time In Calcutta

    Sengupta has created a colourful, multi-layered and rich work that can be read in many ways, despite its flaws.

    Mateusz Tarwacki · 3 out of 5
    After the loss of her daughter, Ela not only loses her identity as a mother, but also the only reason to be with her husband. But she finds starting the new life she wants isn't easy.
  • Onoda: 10,000 Nights In The Jungle
    Review preview for Onoda: 10,000 Nights In The Jungle

    Harari and his co-writers Bernard Cendron and Vincent Poymiro, show how the war propaganda becomes internalised in these men, so that even when they are given signs that the conflict may be over, they rationalise that it must be some sort of 'fake news' designed to trick them.

    Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
    It's the end of 1944. Japan is losing the war. Hiroo Onoda is sent to an island in the Philippines just before the American landing. The handful of soldiers that he takes with him into the jungle keep fighting, not realising the war is over.
  • Pilgrims
    Review preview for Pilgrims

    Bareisa successfully contrasts the slow long takes and great blocking, making it a well-balanced watch that will engage you on multiple fronts despite its withholding of many common cinematic devices to facilitates its ambivalence.

    Nikola Jovic · 4 out of 5
    A pair of old friends revisit the scene of a crime with unexpected consequences.

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  • Riotsville, USA
    Review preview for Riotsville, USA

    While Pettengill is fascinated by the archival content, she’s also not afraid to experiment with form, including digital distortions that identify the movie as a product of the present.

    Jeremy Mathews · 3 out of 5
    Welcome to Riotsville, a fictional town built by the US military. Using footage shot by the media and government, the film explores the militarisation of the police and the reaction of a nation to the uprisings of the late Sixties, creating a counter-narrative to a critical moment in American history.
  • Small, Slow But Steady
    Review preview for Small, Slow But Steady

    Transcendental is often a pretentious word, but Miyake’s cadenced, Ozu-reminiscent, directorial style has a talent for sensing tensions and charging shots with profound meaning and sereneness.

    Dora Leu · 4 out of 5
    A young Deaf boxer struggles to find the will to fight through the pandemic.