Reviews by Jane Fae

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  The Silent Hour (2024)

  Review preview for The Silent Hour

  The film soundtrack contributes neatly to the sense of alienation; of setting apart from the hearing world, with background track alternating conventional melody with something far more ominous.

  A detective with hearing loss and a Deaf witness to a murder must lean on each other to outsmart killers they can't hear coming when cornered in an abandoned apartment block.
• 
  In Broad Daylight (2023)

  Review preview for In Broad Daylight

  Exposé there is, albeit not quite the way you might expect. At its core, however, are some much more interesting questions.

  Posing as the granddaughter of a private extended care home patient, an investigative journalist uncovers a culture of abuse and corruption at the facility.
• 
  Tarrac (2022)

  Review preview for Tarrac

  It engages from the very beginning, filling the screen with real, flawed, down-to-earth characters.

  When a woman goes back home to help her dad after he has a heart attack, she finds her passion for traditional Naomhóg rowing rekindled.
• 
  Goliath (2022)

  Review preview for Goliath

  A crisp, downbeat, clever exploration of the issues, combined with a whodunnit.

  In the aftermath of President Macron's U-turn on a glyphosate ban, the stories of lawyer Patrick, victim France and lobbyist Mathias intertwine when the wife of a farmer dead from cancer commits a terrible act of protest.
• 
  I Am Rage (2023)

  Review preview for I Am Rage

  It’s a predictable revenge action movie but it brings to the genre a degree of wit and self-awareness.

  An ancient cult embroiled in a sinister blood trade makes the deadly mistake of abducting a young woman with a violent, shocking past.
• 
  The Tunnel To Summer, The Exit Of Goodbyes (2022)

  Review preview for The Tunnel To Summer, The Exit Of Goodbyes

  A beautifully drawn anime featuring teenage love, angst and manga.

  Kaoru Tono heard a rumour: The laws of space and time mean nothing to the Urashima Tunnel. If you find it, walk through and you'll find your heart's desire on the other side...in exchange for years of your own life
• 
  Call Her King (2023)

  Review preview for Call Her King

  With two locations acting as stage for two very different types of action, the film could easily have fractured. It doesn’t.

  After the courthouse is hijacked by the brother of a man she has just sentenced sentenced, a judge must rely on her strength and skills to find a way to end the standoff, save the hostages, and make her escape.
• 
  Suzume (2022)

  Review preview for Suzume

  For lovers of anime, there are Easter eggs aplenty, including more than a few nods to the famed Ghibli studios.

  Animated adventure sees a teenager fight to close a series of "Doors of Disaster".
• 
  Black Box (2021)

  Review preview for Black Box

  Director Yann Gozlan has done a great job here of taking us right up to the line.

  Mathieu is a young and talented black box analyst on a mission to solve the reason behind the deadly crash of a brand new aircraft.
• 
  After Blue (2021)

  Review preview for After Blue

  Where narrative fails, look for symbolism; and there are symbols aplenty. It’s just not clear that they mean anything coherent.

  It's a distant future, on a savage planet, where only women can survive. The lonely teenager Roxy frees a criminal buried in the sand. Once freed, the woman, who goes by the name of Kate Bush, starts spreading fear and death again.
• 
  Millie Lies Low (2021)

  Review preview for Millie Lies Low

  The entire tenor of the film is downbeat.

  Anxious architecture graduate Millie is about to fly from Wellington to New York for a prestigious internship but has a panic attack before departure and gets off the plane. Unable to afford another flight, she hides out in her hometown, posting fake Big Apple updates to Instagram while trying to raise the money for a replacement ticket.
• 
  The Press & the People, Part I (2022)

  Review preview for The Press & the People, Part I

  The mood, as you would expect, is sombre, serious. The message clear.

  The stories of people who faced press abuse after losing someone close to them.
• 
  Donna (2022)

  Review preview for Donna

  The Compton story is an important one, highlighting how queer liberation did not happen just the once in one single location. For me, however, far more interesting was her personal story.

  An intimate and candid portrait of trans activist, artist and performer Donna Personna, which follows her journey to live authentically as herself and to reconnect with her family.
• 
  Fortress: Sniper's Eye (2022)

  Review preview for Fortress: Sniper's Eye

  Did I care? Not really. There was a certain homogeneity amongst both villains and saints.

  The story of a top-secret resort for retired US intelligence officers.
• 
  Rubikon (2022)

  Review preview for Rubikon

  If you like this sort of thing, you’ll like this.

  Following a catastrophe on Earth, the planet is covered in a toxic fog. The crew in the space station, must decide whether to risk their lives to get home and search for survivors, or stay safe in the station's algae symbiosis system.
• 
  There Are No Saints (2022)

  Review preview for There Are No Saints

  It does pretty much as it says on the wrapper: and if some of us do not have the stomach to stay the course, that is on us, not the filmmakers.

  When a man who was wrongfully imprisoned discovers his wife has been murdered and his son kidnapped, he hatches a plan for vengeance.
• 
  Acid Test (2021)

  Review preview for Acid Test

  There was a degree to which I found this both too easy to get into and therefore hard to like.

  A coming-of-age rebellion fueled by Riot Grrrl music, a dysfunctional family, and LSD
• 
  Days Of Daisy (2022)

  Review preview for Days Of Daisy

  Alongside the gentle humour there is a quirky subversiveness to this film that belies its outward ordinary appearance.

  As her 40th birthday draws near, Daisy feels societal pressure to settle down and start a family. In a spiral for meaning, she teams up with local photographer Jack Palmer to give West High School students the art programme that they deserve.
• 
  Cop Secret (2021)

  Review preview for Cop Secret

  This film is nothing if not derivative. Except, therein lies its beauty.

  Mismatched buddy cop spoof.
• 
  Nine Bullets (2022)

  Review preview for Nine Bullets

  Nine Bullets is not just an action film, which it is…but a film in which characters develop, learn and learn to get along.

  A burlesque dancer must go on the run to save a neighbour boy whose life is threatened by her ex-lover.
• 
  Much Ado (2022)

  Review preview for Much Ado

  There are moments when the principal characters manage to lift the film, but these are few and far between.

  Rom com based on the Shakespeare play.
• 
  Along Came Wanda (2021)

  Review preview for Along Came Wanda

  As a feelgood film about relationships, Along Came Wanda works well.

  A memory jogged by a teapot from an old lover quickly turns into an adventure of discovery for Mary Beth Higgins and her new found friend Wanda as they hit the road in Wanda's RV/Soup Truck.
• In The Strange Pursuit Of Laura Durand (2019)

  Review preview for In The Strange Pursuit Of Laura Durand

  There is a tension between two worlds here.

  A pair of bandmates, obsessed with a porn star from the Nineties, find themselves on an unexpected journey round Greece.
• 
  Lola And The Sea (2019)

  Review preview for Lola And The Sea

  Above all else, this is a film about parenting and the barriers that can be erected between parent and child.

  A young trans woman hopes to reconcile with her estranged father as they share the journey to scatter her mother's ashes.
• 
  French Tech (2020)

  Review preview for French Tech

  This is satire. Sharp, observant, but unlike British films in similar vein, never cutting.

  An unemployed man has two months while his wife is away to prove he can take care of the kids and find a job.
• 
  This Game's Called Murder (2021)

  Review preview for This Game's Called Murder

  It feels like writer/director Adam Sherman had fun making this film.

  A family saga focused on shoes and homicide.
• 
  Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn (2021)

  Review preview for Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn

  At times, the dialogue is well done, scores points. At other times, it felt like we had wandered into a Socratic symposium.

  Emi, a school teacher, finds her career and reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked on the Internet.
• 
  Warning (2021)

  Review preview for Warning

  Each story has to it a kernel of interestingness, some more than others. But I wasn’t convinced they all belonged in the same world.

  The meaning of life explored through multiple interconnected lives set in the near future.
• 
  Eating Our Way To Extinction (2021)

  Review preview for Eating Our Way To Extinction

  If you are already tuned into the issues, you will likely nod along in agreement with almost every sentence uttered in the polished Winslet tones.

  The threat to the planet generated by our eating habits.
• 
  13 Minutes (2021)

  Review preview for 13 Minutes

  13 Minutes is a sort of Casualty with tornadoes. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

  The largest tornado on record threatens to ravage a small town, leaving residents with only 13 minutes to find shelter, search for loved ones and fight for their lives.
• 
  Ride The Eagle (2021)

  Review preview for Ride The Eagle

  A great way to while away 90 minutes.

  Leif is left with a conditional inheritance when his estranged mother dies. Before he can move into her picturesque Yosemite cabin, he has to complete her elaborate, and sometimes dubious, to-do list.
• 
  Freshman Year (2020)

  Review preview for Freshman Year

  There is some slight humorous incident and dialogue.

  A lonely college freshman forges a strong connection with his resident assistant during a fraternity party.
• 
  What Breaks The Ice (2020)

  Review preview for What Breaks The Ice

  This is a thoughtful film, an insightful film, exploring the highs – and lows – of intense female friendship.

  Two teenage girls who come from different worlds strike up a quick and deep friendship during summer break in 1998.
• 
  Implanted (2021)

  Review preview for Implanted

  It is slick, well-made with a not half decent soundtrack.

  A struggling young woman is implanted with an experimental AI chip. She must fight to survive when it takes control.
• 
  Come From Away (2021)

  Review preview for Come From Away

  It's a happy, celebratory sort of musical without a villain.

  The story of 7,000 people stranded in the small town of Gander, Newfoundland after all flights into the US are grounded on September 11, 2001.
• 
  Sing To Me Sylvie (2021)

  Review preview for Sing To Me Sylvie

  The style is very much fly on the wall. Except, I could not imagine any documentary maker hanging around for hours and hours of this stuff. Let alone any self-respecting fly.

  Ten years after a failed music career a woman runs into her former bandmate and offers him a place to stay while her husband is away, forcing them to confront their past.
• 
  Herself (2020)

  Review preview for Herself

  Yes, Herself is first and foremost a film about a woman's journey. It is also, in a smaller way, about another journey, from selfishness to community spirit.

  A domestic abuse survivor tries to build a new life - and home - for her kids.
• 
  White As Snow (2019)

  Review preview for White As Snow

  There’s a lot of clever twists here, and plenty of knowing references to Snow White.

  Recasts the tale of Snow White as the story of a sheltered young woman’s sexual awakening in this racy feminist fable.
• 
  Man Under Table (2021)

  Review preview for Man Under Table

  The film was so clever, so sharp that after the first five minutes I had the impression of a project paper-cutting itself to death.

  In an anachronistic dystopian landscape, a beleaguered young man attempts to navigate his way through the indie film scene in LA.
• 
  Twist (2021)

  Review preview for Twist

  Engage with it on its own terms, treat it as what it is, which is light, frothy and fun and it is a perfectly acceptable 90 minutes of entertainment.

  A gifted graffiti artist tries to find his way after the loss of his mother.
• 
  Out Of Death (2021)

  Review preview for Out Of Death

  Jaime King is great as much put-upon innocent, gritted teeth, reluctant heroine.

  A corrupt Sheriff's department in a rural mountain town comes undone when an unintended witness throws a wrench into its shady operations.
• 
  Plurality (2021)

  Review preview for Plurality

  Looks good and there are moments of real tension.

  After a bus accident, Ming Ze awakens from a coma to discover that his mind now shares the consciousness of four fellow passengers – all of them dead and all serial killing suspects – and sets out to prove his own innocence.
• 
  River (2021)

  Review preview for River

  It drags and is held together only by the fact that there is a super-irritating electronic score playing incessantly in the background.

  Following her mother’s death, River Allen finds herself spiralling out of control, when her friend steps in to help, River discovers she has secrets of her own.
• 
  Downeast (2021)

  Review preview for Downeast

  After a slow start, this is a film that draws you in.

  A story of love, loss, and redemption in the seedy underbelly of Maine.
• 
  The Tomorrow War (2021)

  Review preview for The Tomorrow War

  A more than creditable effort by director Chris McKay and writer Zach Dean.

  Time travellers arrive with a warning about the future and to recruit people from the present to join the fight. A schoolteacher signs up.
• 
  Bad Detectives (2021)

  Review preview for Bad Detectives

  In vain, I waited for the plot to pick up and the script to gain pace. Or wit.

  Two young women try to solve the murder of their detective grandfathers.
• 
  Flashback (2021)

  Review preview for Flashback

  Flashback seems designed to allow multiple simultaneous interpretations.

  After encountering a man from his past, a young man attempts to piece together his fragmented recollections about taking an experimental drug called Mercury, which could be connected to a girl's disappearance.
• 
  Weekenders (2021)

  Review preview for Weekenders

  A sweet, cleverly written, under-stated souffle of a production.

  A scheduling mix-up at an Airbnb brings four twenty-somethings together, each navigating the open waters of where, how, and with whom they're supposed to be.
• 
  In Action (2020)

  Review preview for In Action

  There is no single element here to excuse my visceral dislike of this film.

  When the government intercepts their script, believing it to be a veritable terrorist plot, two screenwriters find themselves in trouble.
• 
  Generation Utøya (2021)

  Review preview for Generation Utøya

  Generation Utøya is a compelling, fascinating, humbling insight into a massacre.

  Documentary portrait of four young women who survived the terror attack on Utøya in 2011.