On the vast plains of South Carolina, Brady faces a young life crisis. Born with a natural affinity for horses, gifted at riding and training, he has become drawn to the thrills of the rodeo. Then a serious head injury derails his career. The doctors tell him he cannot ride again, which forces him to examine his life. With that removed, what is left? Continue reading The Rider (2017)
A young woman is on her way to visit her boyfriend’s parents for the first time. The parents live on a farm, the journey from the city is long, and the day wintry. It is snowing heavily. She says she is worried about getting caught by the weather and not being able to get home later, but this is only part of the picture. She is thinking about breaking off the relationship, her troubled thoughts colouring her behaviour. Continue reading I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
In a cruddy Vegas neighbourhood, it’s the last night for ‘The Roaring 20s’, a cocktail bar that is a second home (and even a first one) for a loose collection of local souls. The owner is selling up, and the regulars plan to send it out in style; an all night party where they’ll drink as long, and as hard, as they can. Continue reading Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (2020)
A troubled young woman, Amy, moves into a new house. She puts on Mozart’s ‘Requiem’, drinks a lot of wine, stands in her garden revving her leaf blower. Her friend comes over: concerned. Amy tells her calmly that she is going to die tomorrow. Is she having a nervous breakdown? Her friend thinks so. But later, the same feeling of fatalistic dread comes suddenly to her as well, and seems to be spreading… Continue reading She Dies Tomorrow (2020)
An aspiring film maker takes a vacation at a remote lake house. She is working on a script for a new film, and wants some time out to develop her ideas. The only other occupants are a young couple – the house belongs to a wealthy relative of theirs – who are going through a rough patch; he is a frustrated wannabe musician, she is pregnant, and not certain this wasn’t a terrible mistake. And then: there’s a rustling in the woods…. Continue reading Black Bear (2020)
In mid nineties Paris, something cool was percolating: ‘Garage’, a scene where cool dorks played modern disco and stayed out all night to party. Among the players: ‘Daft Punk’, a DJ duo on their way to global superstardom. And in their shadow: ‘Cheers’, a less talented duo on their way somewhere else. Continue reading Eden (2014)
On a tobacco plantation in rural Italy, a ramshackle community live a timeless existance. Sharecroppers, essentially endentured servants, they are kept under an economic jackboot by the plantation’s cold-blooded owner. When the authorities find out about their illegal treatment, this group of innocents are forced out into the wider world, an environment they are not at all equipped to handle. Continue reading Happy as Lazzaro (2018)
Yoon Do-Joon lives in a small village with his mother. He is a simple soul, easily lead astray, especially by his shrewd, borderline evil friend Jin-Tae. Then Do-Joon is accused of murder; a young girl has been found brutally slain, and he was witnessed during a minor drunken encounter with her the night before. Continue reading Mother (2009)
Cozy lives on the fringes somewhere in Southern Florida. At the start of the film we get her personal history in a series of still image snapshots; indifferent father, average childhood, random memories. Now she is an unhappy single parent, living in a cramped house and and having to hike across a paddock to get to town. Continue reading River of Grass (1994)
Recently divorced Alice frets about her children. They are living with her ex in his remote home town, while she has relocated to Stockholm, and he has cut off her access while custody proceedings unfold. After an alarming late night phone call from her son, she takes rash, drastic action; she abducts both kids and scarpers to Tenerife. Continue reading Charter (2020)
