Queer

Loneliness and Longing

Daniel Craig is in magnificent form as an older man falling for a much younger, much less secure in his sexuality, guy. It’s impossible to imagine anyone else pulling this role off. Craig’s elegance and magnetism lends perfect credibility to their affair. But his comic timing and generous spirit makes his character soft, vulnerable and immensely likeable.

The plot of the film is slight, but the wonder is in the skill of the film making. The camera is patient. The music doesn’t fit the era but encapsulates the mood. There’s a love scene that’s quite unlike anything I’ve seen before. Craig’s willingness to please, and delight in doing so is joyful.

Over two hours watching Daniel Craig tragically yearning and striving for a deeper human connection, a deeper love, may seem a bit much for a film that doesn’t really add up to much. But I found this to be a deeply lonely and tragic tale that held my emotions the whole way through.

Riddle of Fire

Ompéi, Lýkos!

Shot on 16mm film for maximum nostalgia, this is an intentional throwback to the 70’s and 80’s. The most obvious reference point will be The Goonies but it reminded me the most of The Children’s Film Foundation. Low budget films made for children, usually starring children.

This has charm and enthusiasm in spades and is surprisingly rich in its themes. Managing to weave fantasy elements into the story, turning a search for an egg into an epic, high-fantasy quest. It even has a witch.

Another plus point is that, despite its nostalgia, it isn’t trying to lionise the past at the expense of the present. The kids have mobile phones and play with them like kids do. The whole motivation for their quest is they want to play their brand new games console but their mum won’t let them.

A console that they’ve stolen. These kids aren’t angelic, they’re just the right amount of little devils, which makes them hugely engaging.

Sadly, the film is too long and drags quite a bit. I can see why, many of the films best bits are the unnecessary scenes. An extended dance sequence is a highlight. It’s a shame as I think it’s a difficult sell as a kids film, it lacks excitement. And for kids who won’t appreciate the nostalgia, I don’t think it’ll work.

All You Need is Death

Love is a knife with a blade for a handle

A couple who ‘collect’ old, near forgotten Irish folk songs get a lot more than they bargain for when they find a song so old it’s in a forgotten language.

This is deliciously creepy and unsettling. There’s little in the way of shocks or scares, but there is an unrelenting commitment to an ever tightening sense of dread. Little is explained, answers as to what is going on just lead to more questions. It’s grim and nasty and always has a sly grin at the side of its mouth.

The sound design is superb. When ‘the song’ is sung it’s really something, absolute dread chills.

There’s something about the measuredness and intelligence of the film making that makes me believe that there’s a lot of Irish folklore and history that’s gone the backstory of the film. I can imagine that people who’re a lot more knowledgable about this subject will get a lot more out of this than I can.

Sony's Concord is a 5v5 sci-fi shooter with Guardians of the Galaxy vibes

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Sieze Them!

How can a film that re-unites Jessica Hynes and Nick Frost fail?

Well…

Sigh

Where to begin? The direction sucks all the joy out of the actors attempts to breathe life into the turgid script. Almost every scene is a shot followed by a reverse shot for each line so theres almost never any on screen chemistry.

There’s some stunning English countryside that’s shot in such a disinterested way that it resembles a Channel 5 documentary.

The script has nothing of any interest. Barely any set ups, almost non-existent payoffs. No themes, no character arcs, nothing to say.

Bizarrely, there’s a line near the end of the film where Dagan and Shulmay argue, that pierces the heart and reveals a great tragedy of unresolved and unseen grief for one of the characters. ¹ It’s a stunning moment of clarity that glimpses an alternative universe where this film has been made by people who give shit. Who understand characters, motivation and backstory and are prepared to put the effort in to make a cohesive story for the audience. But it’s only a glimpse, lasting barely a couple of seconds before we’re dumped back into this universe where we’re watching a boring movie made by bored people.

Nick Frost and Nicola Coughlan do everything they can to enliven things but fail. John Macmillan and Paul Kaye very (very) briefly succeed.

At one point, James Acaster slides across a scene like a turd in an oilslick, proving once more there really is no beginning to his talents.

Dead Boy Detectives

Dead, dead good

The third best thing I can say about Dead Boy Detectives is that if this had been made twenty years ago it would have been one of the most radical pieces of tv of the era. And yet now it’s depictions of same sex relationships feels completely normal. In fact, those relationships are possibly the most ‘normal’ thing about the show. This is a very good thing.

The second best thing I can say about Dead Boy Detectives is the way it handles real world darkness (such as domestic abuse, child abuse, male violence, bureaucratic ‘violence’, homophobia, agoraphobia etc) whilst staying in the framework of a ‘Monster of the Week’ show. It either deals with this stuff head on, via metaphor, or subtly and in the background. There’s a lot going on here, everything feels like it’s about something and the fact that it packs so much in without feeling over stuffed, ponderous or frivolous is a marvel.

And the very best thing I can say about Dead Boy Detectives is that this is just fabulous entertainment. Funny, warm, witty, imaginative, caring. Honestly, the superlatives could keep flowing for pages. The entire cast play their roles to a tee. A special mention has to go to Lukas Gage’s supurrrlative ¹ Cat King and it’s a wonder that there’s any scenery left at the end after Jenn Lyon has so enthusiastically chewed through it.

Magnificent.

Shortcomings

Randall Park and Sherry Cola on top, top form

Just how unsympathetic can you make a movies main character? There’s been some great movies centred around truly awful people and the usual way to make the audience enjoy their journey is either by making the character charismatic or by making their situation interesting. The danger there, though, is that it’s possible to make the characters personality flaws likeable, excusable, or even desirable.

Justin H.Min’s ‘Ben’ is deeply unlikeable. The film is careful not to have him do anything thats irredeemably bad but neither is he interesting or charismatic. He’s rather tedious and boring (although admittedly an incredibly gorgeous) person. In fact, the most interesting thing about him is that he’s best friends with Sherry Cola’s ‘Alice’, who absolutely is interesting and charismatic. And if she see’s something in him, well there must be something there.

Except that Alice is also a bit of a shitty person and the thing they see in each other is their own flaws reflected back at them. A fact that means they feel comfortable in each other’s company and can feel seen whilst not being judged.

This is a really funny film where the jokes land often enough to keep you engaged but never overwhelm the drama. There’s a few proper belly laughs in there as well.

There’s a lot of dialogue around internalised racism that feels very personal and insightful, and even manages to mine it for comic potential. I felt like the creators really had something to say about Asian representation in media and they managed to do that in a way that was thought provoking without giving easy answers.

No Easy Answers extends to Ben’s character arc. There’s no lessons learned at the end, no redemption or setting things right. But there is an acknowledgement that things have to change. Maybe he will and maybe he won’t. But the fact that he might feels warm and hopeful.

Carmen

Paul Mescal is wonderful but he’s not an American.

A modern interpretation of the opera by Georges Bizet, this knows what it’s not interested in. It’s not interested in the story, it’s barely interested in the characters. It is however, very interested in the music and the dance. It focuses on tone and feeling, instead of nuts’n’bolts story telling.

The choreography is superb, always down to earth, never showy. It feels like the characters are expressing themselves through the dance, rather than the script. I felt emotionally connected to the dance in a way that I don’t when watching most Hollywood dance routines.

It helps that Nicholas Britell is on his best form, producing a score that is simply gorgeous.

Unfortunately, the film isn’t quite daring enough to overcome the slightness of the story. When the music fades and the dancing stops, the story loses momentum and the fire in the heart cools.

But when they are dancing, it burns very bright indeed.

Totally Completely Fine

Totally Completely Thomasin McKenzie

This show starts with Vivian, her life a mess, contemplating suicide, finding out her grandad has died. The man who raised her from a small child when her parents died in a car accident spilts his estate equally between her and her two elder brothers. John gets his massage recliner chair. Hendrix gets his golf clubs. Vivian gets his huge cliff edge mansion.

Except it’s a set up. It turns out that the huge, vertiginous cliff face on which the house is perched is a hot spot for suicide attempts. Her grandfather’s calling was attempting to dissuade those attempting to jump. And, by passing that calling onto his granddaughter, hopes that she might save herself by saving others.

The undoubted highlight of this series is the family dynamic between the three siblings. Watching each of them bicker and argue, all of them failing to come to terms with their grief and decades of feuding is both funny and heartbreaking. This is one of the most believable onscreen families I’ve seen.

A large part of that is down to Thomasin McKenzie who is approaching Toby Jones' levels of watchability. Like Jones she has an absolute charisma that is constantly engaging. And yet also seems so completely normal and down to earth. She has an ability to make me believe in any story she’s telling.

My only criticism ¹ is that there’s two story elements fighting for space in the script: the one about trying to save people from committing suicide and the one about the family coming to terms with grief. And whilst both feed into one another, it’s the family narrative that gets most of the attention. And whilst that’s arguably justified, it’s absolutely wonderful after all, it feels a little unbalanced. Lives are at stake here and yet it gets less screen time than Hendrix’s marriage.

It’s not helped by the fact that Amy, the first suicide attempt that Vivian prevents, is one of the least well drawn characters in the show.

Still, despite the fact that it never quite manages to live up its central premise, there’s enough good stuff here for me to heartily recommend it.

Ronnie O'Sullivan The Edge of Everything

#MentalHealth

A fly on the wall documentary chronicling the run up to Ronnie trying to win his seventh World Title in 2022. But the documentary is not overly interested in his sporting achievements, instead it’s far more focused on Ronnie’s often public battles with his mental health. To which Ronnie quips:

all of a sudden it’s cool…I was twenty years ahead of the game, mate.

Ronnie is extraordinarily open and engaging about his problems and methods of coping with them. And the fact that he’s such an engaging and frank personality makes this film endlessly fascinating.

And yet for all that is open and honest about what is talked about, what’s not said left me with more questions than answers. Whilst some of Ronnie’s celebrity friends are free to talk about everything he’s been through, and his father’s prison sentence is discussed with great sensitivity, no mention is made of his past partners. And I didn’t know he had kids until they turned up in footage at the end of the film. His sister appears in family photos but is never even mentioned.

Ronnie talks at great length about his relationship between snooker and his mental health, but there are contradictions that never get questioned. He claims he would rather play well and lose than play badly and win. And yet he seems to hate losing and the documentary never digs in to that dichotomy.

None of this is a criticism, it’s admiral that there are certain areas of his life that he wants to keep private. And just letting him get everything off his chest, unguarded without needing to be defensive is incredibly revealing.

But it does mean that the closer I got to understanding what drives Ronnie O’Sullivan on, the further away I got from understanding him as a complete person. The more answers I got about how he copes with the pressures of his life, the more questions I had about why he did so.

Given Ronnie’s extraordinary life, career, talent and personality, it felt perfectly apt. One of the best sporting documentaries I’ve seen.

For further reading, I’d also recommend this fantastic article at Little White Lies. Mental health and masculinity at the movies There’s a few ‘spoilers’ (as much as you can spoil a documentary) but if a far deeper discussion of the subject matter than I can manage.

Godzilla Minus One

And Godzoooooky

This movie has literally everything I think of when I think of a Godzilla movie.

• Hammy acting
• Ensemble cast
• Main character with a tragic past looking for redemption
• Spectacular special effects
• Themes and metaphors
• Terrible special effects

It’s the themes part of that list that really stand out in Godzilla -1. PTSD, grief, survivors guilt, feeling betrayed by your own country, finding hope and family in the rubble of defeat. All of these, and probably a few more that I missed, are woven into the plot with great effect.

Admittedly, none of it is subtle and the script spells everything out for you like it’s teaching each concept to a small child. But that never stops it from being effective and frequently quite moving.

The Oscar winning special effects are superb. They manage to be both an homage to the original movies as well as being a modern special effects extravaganza. The scenes of Godzilla stomping around Ginza have this weird quality where the fidelity of the cgi, combined with the old-school monster design, make it look like a giant man in a rubber suit is actually flattening a city. It’s genius and goofy at the same time and I loved it.

The direction has an old-school feel to it as well. Shots are held for far longer than we’re used to in American movies, especially in action scenes. This results in a gradual building of tension and a feeling of reverence towards Godzilla. You feel like the film makers really want to do justice to the big-G and wanted the camera to linger on him long enough to appreciate just how great he is. Admittedly, it doesn’t generate the sense of thunder-struck awe that Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla managed but it comes surprisingly close.

Literally everything you could want in a monster movie.

Love Lies Bleeding

Most disturbing hair piece since Anton Chigurh

Oh, this is absolutely blistering. A tale of love, lust, domestic violence, revenge, steroid abuse and family legacies.

There’s a whole load of things going on here with the film knowing exactly where the lines are between comedy, horror, erotica, tension and thrills, and knows exactly how to dance around them. The level of control the director, Rose Glass, has over both the story and the audience is magnificent. By the end of the film you feel like your emotions and expectations are being played with like a cat teasing a mouse. And. It. Is. Great.

There’s Cronenberg-ian body horror, toxic masculinity satire, some genuine shocks, a little slapstick comedy, an ever escalating, ratcheting tension, terrific cinematography and Ed Harris' hair.

Something this versatile shouldn’t be this focused or this good. But it is and it’s an absolute blast.

Scavengers Reign

Stranger, Wilder Things

A standard way to start a review like this would be to give an overview of the main characters and the start of the story. But the characters who find themselves crash landed on an alien planet aren’t really the protagonists and it’s not their story.

The star here is the planet itself and the ecosystem that exists on it. The story is one of billions of years of evolution and adaptation. The ecology here is wild and fantastical. Some things are seen in the context of a co-dependant ecosystem. Others are presented completely devoid of context or explanation, with no clue as to whether it’s a once-in-a-millennia moment or an every day occurrence. The planets complete indifference to the characters who are journeying through it is both terrifying and awe inspiring.

Terrifyingly, the only thing on the planet that really pays attention to them sees them as a resource to be exploited. ¹

That’s not to say that there’s nothing to the character’s stories. Whilst the beauty of the alien world is incredible, it’s the beating hearts of the humans that drive us through it and allow us to experience it alongside them. Whilst the animation is the showstopper, it’s the warmth of the story that’ll get you to binge watch it in a few evenings.

Unique and essential viewing.

Hundreds of Beavers

Elmer Fudd: The Movie

What do you do when you desperately want to make a classic era Warner Brothers cartoon but haven’t got the budget for all that expensive animation? Well, if you’re Mike Cheslik the answer is to get a bunch of guys to don animal costumes and then make a black and white silent film.

It wears its influences on its sleeve, taking inspiration from Looney Tunes, Chaplin and more recent fare from Pixar and Aardman. And tries to do all that on a clearly minuscule budget. Crucially, it absolutely succeeds.

It’s slapstick and sight gags are consistently funny. It’s endlessly imaginative, throwing new ideas at the screen every few minutes, each more outrageous than the last.

Which, sadly, proves to be the films flaw. It’s too long, too stuffed with ideas to hold your interest over an hour and three quarters. Classic Looney Tunes worked because they stuffed all their ideas into a short, violent burst of mayhem. Pixar sustain interest through emotional investment. Aardman have amazing animation and an ability to pack in jokes at an absurd rate.

Hundreds of Beavers doesn’t quite match up to any of those and I was ready for the film to end a good twenty minutes before it actually did.

Still, it seems churlish to moan at a film for trying to give you too much. This is exactly the movie the film makers wanted to make and I really can’t applaud them enough for doing so.

Mandy

Peak Minty

Whisper it: I think this is the funniest thing on iPlayer.

Diane Morgan has taken the essence of the 80’s British sitcom, it’s idiotic main characters, it’s absurdly contrived plots, it’s mixture of utter banality and occasional surrealism. She’s jettisoned all of the set-up, all of the fluff and filler, anything that isn’t generating a laugh every few seconds. And she’s ended up with a fifteen minute show that’s a rocket fuelled gem.

She’s improved upon her influences in just about every way. Let’s start with the main character, Mandy.

Each episode see’s Mandy Carter trying her hand at a new job, usually at the behest of her exasperated Job Seeker’s officer. And each episode it goes disastrously wrong. But not because Mandy’s stupid or clumsy. It’s usually because she’s just bored (something we can all relate to at work) or distracted. Sometimes it’s because she’s actually hyper-competent and ends up taking things too far.

Because Morgan clearly loves Mandy. Mandy isn’t an object of scorn or ridicule. We laugh at her, yes, but it’s always with affection. Mandy is, in a very bizarre way, somebody to be admired.

Then there’s the celebrity cameos. A combination of Morgan’s eye for casting and the fact that each episode is so brief means that there’s an avalanche of celebrities of all stripes prepared to give up a day (probably significantly less) for filming, all looking like they’re having the time of their lives.

And each one is a surprise. Either because the cameo is deliciously played against type (Sonia-from-Eastenders channeling her inner Don Logan from Sexy Beast is an absolute treat) or because the setup is so misdirected and obfuscated that the punchline is glorious.

And finally there’s the surrealism. The sheer pace of the jokes and inventiveness leaves no place for something as boring as reality. If it’s funny: it’s in. So even though the form of the jokes feel familiar, the way each joke jackknifes the plot further away from mundanity makes everything a surprise.

Just glorious, an absolute gem.

Oh Mandy, you came and you gave without taking…

The Zone of Interest

Incredibly topical

A deeply unsettling account of how people can look genocide in the face without even flinching. I don’t have the words to describe how I feel about this, I’m not sure I ever will.

I was not, in any way, prepared for the ending which is absolutely staggering.

Uproar

Julian Dennison elevates a very slight affair.

I find it difficult to offer much analysis on this as I found it to be quite lightweight in a lot of ways.

The subject matter kind of implies that this should be hard hitting, a moving account of New Zealand society’s endemic racism to Maori people. And whilst this is portrayed, it’s mostly as background and context for Josh’s (played by Julian Dennison) coming-of-age story. It never goes as deep or as in depth as you want it to.

On the positive side, focusing almost completely on Josh means that you get to see how this affects him as a person, which is what the film is more interested in. It helps that Julian gets a chance to show that Hunt for the Wilderpeople wasn’t a fluke. He’s absolutely pitch perfect in every scene. Only overacting in the moments where he’s supposed to be overacting as his character fumbles his way to becoming a thespian. The rest of the cast are on fine form as well.

It also features the first time that I, in my ignorance, have seen the Haka performed in a context that wasn’t sporting or ceremonial. It is absolutely electric and the highlight of the entire film. A spine-tingling scene that’ll stay with me for a long time.

The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin

Dick Turpin and His Essex Gang

Over the last ten years or so, sit-coms seem to have gradually shifted in tone. Less snark, less sarcasm, less satire. More inclusive, more diverse, more hopeful. It’s not just that the news is so relentlessly grim that people want something to take their minds off it. It’s also the fact that the news is so utterly stupid that it’s impossible to satirise, so completely shameless in its stupidity that even if you did there would be no point.

And whilst I loved the snark, sarcasm and satire of the comedies of my youth. A combination of wearied age and experience means that I’m very much enjoying this new inclusivity, diversity and hope.

The latest sit-com to push those qualities to the fore is Noel Fielding’s Dick Turpin, which is amiable and good natured to a fault. It’s border-line 18th Century Ted Lasso.

Dick wants to be a famous highway man but also wants to be good and kind. Much of the comedy comes from this incongruity. His crew want to be a team of tough criminals, but they also want to be themselves. Even more comedy from this. It’s often delightful, occasionally laugh out loud funny.

There’s a couple of stand out performances: Hugh Bonneville is in cracking form, and Kiri Flaherty is a delight as Little Karen.

Only Connor Swindells disappoints as Tommy Silversides and that’s only because his character is so clearly inspired by Lord Flashheart that it’s impossible to avoid the comparison. And comparison to Rick Mayall is never going to end well.

So it’s not Blackadder. It is however, very much Maid Marion and Her Merry Men. Which either means my initial observation about the changing tone of sit-coms was wildly incorrect. Or Maid Marion… was massively ahead of its time.

Lisa Frankenstein

Turns out that “Borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered ’80s” is great, actually.

Lisa is a misunderstood, lonely teenager. Her dad doesn’t understand her, her cheerleading step-sister doesn’t understand her and mental health nurse step mum positively hates her. She spends her free time in a decrepit grave yard talking to the gravestone of a dead poet, whose zombified body she inadvertently resurrects.

Cue journey of self discovery as she tries to hide, fix and date her hot zombie poet boyfriend. The problem being that what Lisa discovers about herself is that she’s an absolute dick.

And this is what makes this film an absolute riot. Whilst Lisa is always entirely relatable (all of us were a this self obsessed at one point in our teenage years), watching her gradually embrace her new found self confidence to the point of serial murderer is glorious.

A Diablo Cody script being sharp, warm, funny and insightful is hardly a surprise. But Zelda Williams 80’s-to-the-Max aesthetic really is. It’s not nostalgic as she doesn’t remember the eighties. Instead, she leans into the idea that this is an eighties teen comedy made by someone who’s never experienced the actual eighties and instead has pieced together what it was like from pop-culture. It’s familiar but new and I loved it.

One of the films of the year for me, an absolute belter.

The Innocent

Classy, comic heist movie

Abel, mourning the loss of his wife, can’t bring himself to welcome his mother’s new husband, freshly released from jail, into his life. Convinced he hasn’t renounced his criminal past Abel sets out, with the aid of his wife’s best friend, to find out the truth. Setting in motion a bizarre chain of events that could have dire consequences for everyone.

This is a bit of a delight. Frothy, funny and heartfelt, the whole thing zips along at pace. Every character is engaging and likeable, even when they’re being arseholes.

The heist, which the entire film is built around, is brilliant and (a rare thing for the heist movie genre) moving.

A lot of fun.

Monkey Man

Monkey Nuts

I don’t think I’ve read a single preview or review to this film that hasn’t mentioned The Raid. So let’s say this right from the start: this isn’t The Raid. It’s not as exciting and the fight scenes aren’t in the same league.

Having got that out the way, this is really impressive, imaginative stuff from Dev Patel.

It’s rare that action movies are overtly, consciously political. But Monkey Man is that rare beast. The story starts as a simple revenge story, but as Dev’s protagonist gradually and literally works his way up the Indian class/caste system he’s contextualised as a warrior for an entire underclass. This could end up being glib or trite, but the film commits to its politics as whole heartedly as it does to the violence. With its whole chest.

The use of music is absolutely superb, the soundtrack is practically a character in the movie. Its inventive, involving and, in one absolutely extraordinary fight scene, completely overwhelming.

So it’s not The Raid, it’s something very different and very much its own thing. More of this please.

Eileen

Sponsored by Lucky Strike cigarettes

The ever excellent Thomasin McKenzie plays a mousy, plain young woman in 1960’s Massachusetts, working in a prison for young offenders. She gradually becomes obsessed with the prison’s glamorous new doctor, the occasionally excellent Anne Hathaway.

As we were talking about plot twists last time, this one has an absolute belter. A proper eyes-wider-sit-back-in-your-seat-mouth-agog sideswipe.

Unfortunately, the script can’t quite tie anything together after that. Everything feels a little off and the ending is deeply unsatisfactory.

It’s a shame as the film as a whole is thoroughly enjoyable. Both leads are superb, the period details are excellent (it wrings a lot out of ‘smoking in inappropriate moments’) and the script trusts the audience enough to ask their own questions in order to build the tension. I really wanted everything to add up to more.

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial

A very able Caine

I won’t do many puns, I promise.

I’ve not read the book, been to the play or watched the ’50s version of this so I can’t speak to how successful an adaptation this is. Nor how well it compares to them. This is a cracking good time in its own right though. The script cracks along with no flab, and has enough meat on it to allow the actors to really get their teeth into it.

Everybody does a great job looking like they’re only just managing to keep their emotions in check. None more so than Monica Raymund, whose repeatedly overruled Prosecutor looks like she’s going to literally explode, whilst barely moving a muscle.

This is a lot of fun while it lasts, but the twist didn’t really land for me and I don’t think it’ll leave a lasting impression.

Origin

Ava DuVernay in magnificent form adapting a work of non-fiction.

Based on the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson, Ava DuVernay has taken a highly imaginative and passion fuelled approach to its adaptation. Instead of a straight forward documentary we have a story built around Wilkerson’s process for writing the book. The books central arguments explained through conversations with people, both in her personal life and academics she meets through her research.

Then, peppered throughout this narrative, are dramatisations of events from some of the key research texts she uses to pull together her thesis.

The decision DuVernay is making here is to replace the logic and facts that books can densely pack in with the emotive force that films can provide. Scene’s from America’s history of slavery are woven together with scene’s from Nazi Germany, and later India, that don’t so much argue that they’re from the same connective tissue but make you feel this truth.

We’ve all lost count of the number of dramatisations of Nazi Germany that we’ve seen on screen. But rarely do these scene’s drip with so much disdain and disgust as they do here. The brief scenes on a slave ship are nightmare fuel. If DuVernay ever decides to turn her hand to making horror movies we are all in trouble.

If I can nit-pick slightly, out of all the areas that the film deals with, India is the one I’m least familiar with and it’s also the area the film spends the least time with. I wanted to learn more. And I also wanted to learn more about why this system exists, who benefits from it and why it persists.

But then I suppose I can go and read the book for that.

Ultimately this is a profoundly moving, human and even hopeful film. Masterful stuff.