During my coverage at the 47th Seattle International Film Festival, I had the chance to watch the fantastically funny, charmingly absurd Wyrm – an unconventional coming-of-age story encapsulating the social anxieties around sexuality in high school. I was lucky enough to have a chat with Christopher Winterbauer, the director and writer of Wyrm to discuss

Pandemic films are a difficult sell in our current climate; mostly because it begs the question: who wants to watch a film that’s basically a reflection of the past year? Some have tried, and failed – I’m looking at you Songbird and Locked Down. It seemed that attempting to tackle the subject matter wasn’t something

In a city such as Budapest — which hosts a wide variety of different cultural backgrounds and people — there’s a certain level of vapidness within the different walks of life. In the case of Benece Fliegauf and his evolving "Forest" saga of films, the aforementioned observant backdrop is the primary framework of his latest

Anocha Suwichakornpong’s latest feature entitled Come Here opens with a lingering shot inside a moving train-car. The viewer, paralysed in place, is forced to view the endless array of flora gliding past the window frame. Where is the train going? When will this journey end? Is there any real reason to be on this train

The last residential school to close in Canada shuttered its doors in 1996. After decades of dispute and compensation from the Canadian government, the discussion on these horrid institutions still appropriately remains. Since the early 17th century, colonialists have been assimilating Indigenous Peoples and their land; for the sake of selfish gain of property and

In a year already filled with surprises and other peculiar circumstances, the winner of this year’s Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival was given to a film that appropriately opened with a literal bang. In Radu Jude’s Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, his aptly titled film commences with a home-made sex tape

The average disposable camera sold at any pharmacy or rundown photo lab contains twenty-seven unique exposures. With a simple wind and click format, there is no room for messing with miscellaneous ISO alterations or other advanced photography techniques. These disposable cameras are designed for amateurs — a device specially invented to create a lens into

In the past few months, after attending a plethora of film festivals, I’ve been noticing a recurring theme of questionable creative decision-making — specifically regarding the justification of a film's chosen medium. Art, as general as that term is, contains a various amount of intricacies that sprout in various different sectors of commercial entertainment. Film,

The foundations of grounded storytelling come directly from the core value of any narrative. Whether it's a piece that’s completely non-linear, or a script that follows the common three-act structure, what’s most prominent at the forefront within any film is the execution of the progression of events. Either if it’s through setup or even a

The grueling behind-the-scenes production and on-set drama of a typical documentary production is a frequently underrepresented topic. Very little do we see actual B-Roll of crew members actively producing their films, or even a recollection of testimonies and insight on the process for that matter. In many ways, it’s the greatest selling point of A

Beans tells the story of Tekehentahkhwa (Kiawentiio), a young Mohawk girl who is affectionately known as Beans. A coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Oka Crisis, Beans champions Mohawk voices, and viewpoints in a time when they were being lauded widely as terrorists. There is obviously a lot of nuance and detail to

As of late, there's been two primary cinema-related trends that are being consistently screened within the independent film scene. The first being pandemic set features — films that prominently self-reference and utilise the lockdown setting as means to create further comedic and dramatic effect. The second form are commentaries on the recent media attention to

An alarm beeps. The sun is brightly shining through the thin curtains of a barred window.  For the Mehdipour family, this is just the start of any ordinary day. The Finnish suburbs are their temporary home, as they seek for guaranteed Asylum. The children of the family study and go to school; as the parents

When Ryūsuke Hamaguchi debuted his five-hour epic Happy Hour at Locarno six years ago, his long-deserved repertoire finally came into the international limelight. For those unfamiliar with his filmography, his work is consistently devastating, as he produces and writes nuanced stories that feature a muted directional form. With his latest feature Wheel of Fortune and

The year is 1928. It’s a sunny Tuesday on a blazing August afternoon. The German countryside is busy recovering from a post-war recession. The stock market is steadily increasing at a formidable opening. The working class are continuously exhausted and extorted of their energy and resources. Oh, and did I mention that the imperialists of

We all start from somewhere. From the hustle and bustle of daily life — stories about self-growth and realisation can often be frequently cathartic and therapeutic. It’s the beauty of art; the power of self-reflection and relatability combined on top of our own interpretations and insight on the art we consume. For Labidi, a broke

The job of any member on a police force is to de-escalate a situation. Or at least that’s what we hope to expect. In a system, that in itself, is designed to hurt the underprivileged — it’s also unfortunately expected for members of these institutions to blindly follow orders upon command. More often than not,

Now, we're going to take the beginning of this review and do it nice and easy. Or we’ll at least try to because attempting to sum up the entire life and works of one of the most celebrated music icons of our time is anything but easy. Tina Turner has lived a truly remarkable life.

A formula-one racer, a devilish propaganda-sponsoring Nazi, and a scientist on the verge of a cloning breakthrough. For Daniel Brühl, it seems as though no role is too obscure for him to handle. Throughout his extensive career, the European actor has delivered some of the most iconic performances in both independent and awards-caliber films alike.

In 2013, Spike Jonze introduced the world to the soft-spoken OS 'Samantha'. Since the release of Her and its romantic ordeals on the clash of technology with the modern-day dating sphere — filmmakers and screenwriters have been modifying their own unique technology-based parables with the underlying concept of universal yearning. Another notable example is Denis

More often than not, the power of social realism can be a persuasive tool to observe the terror from within. Utilising a purposefully distant and objective point of view, some of the more prominent realist auteurs from the past few decades (Arnold, Loach and Leigh) have utilised challenging framing devices in order to explore the

The flickering of a VHS tape is a luminous reminder for Artemis. A young woman forced to return to her Greek residence in hope of reconciliation with her estranged father, the VHS tapes from her youth are a haunting symbol of his permanent absence in her early years. Paris — the man now ridden with

We all seek for some amount of solace within any romantic flick. That’s what makes the genre so versatile after all. The characters, the chemistry, and the customs that surround these stories of profound love have ultimately created millions of variations on different circumstances and plots. It’s a universal experience; one that is further immortalised