Skip to content

ROUGH CUT

Critique is so limiting

  • Home
  • About
    • Pitch
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Columns
  • Interviews
Press Enter / Return to begin your search.

Melbourne International Film Festival

Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: ‘Women Make Film’, and How, In This Epic Documentary Chronicling the Female Gaze

Mark Cousins’ gargantuan series on female directors is captivating and aspirational from every one of its 14 hours.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: Death, Lesbians, and Disappointment in ‘Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt)’

It may be a meaningful step forward for Australian queer cinema, but this lesbian teen rom-com offers little outside of representation.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: ‘The Tango of the Widower and Its Distorting Mirror’ is Little More Than A Fragmented Reflection of Former Greatness

Filmed in 1967 and reconstructed in 2020, Matilda Alexander ponders Raúl Ruiz’s Chilean cinépoem, which brims with visionary ambition.

Read more
Features, Melbourne International Film Festival

‘Ema’ and the Explosive Composite of the Dance Film

Pablo Larraín’s latest film is a metaphysical exploration that gives into the domination, submission and total openness of the senses.

Read more
Features, Melbourne International Film Festival

Lessons in Tenderness from ‘First Cow’

Kelly Reichardt’s quiet film offers examples of kindness amongst the exploited.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: ‘Corpus Christi’ is a Clear-Eyed Drama about Faith and Fraud

There are no simple truths in this bittersweet, confronting film of a delinquent Polish youth masquerading as a Catholic priest.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: The Adolescent Panic of ‘Shiva Baby’

Emma Seligman’s debut feature is an affecting examination of the pressures, anxieties and insecurities of young womanhood.

Read more
Features, Melbourne International Film Festival

The Slippery Substance of ‘Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets’

Matilda Dorman deciphers the hollow political and social resonances that lie with a quasi-fictional film about a bar on closing night.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: Artificial Unintelligence in ‘Coded Bias’

Shalini Kantayya’s documentary is a methodical look at facial recognition algorithms which avoids being by-the-numbers.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: The Dread of Waiting in ‘La Llorona’

This slow-burning Guatemalan ghost story deals with heavy questions about complicity and justice.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Melbourne International Film Festival 2020 Shorts Round-Up: Animation

In this year’s impressive Animated Shorts line-up, three films elevate the mundane through style and tone.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Melbourne International Film Festival 2020 Shorts Round-Up: International

In this year’s heavy-hitting International Shorts line-up, three women-centric films stand out, exploring separate facets of female isolation.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: ‘The Plastic House’ Tends To A Garden of Isolation and Grief

The repetitive imagery and near silence of Allison Chhorn’s experimental film may cause pandemic-era viewers to reflect on their own daily routines.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: Beats

Brian Welsh injects this coming of age tale, set against the last hurrah of Scotland’s rave scene, with visual energy and electric nostalgia.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: The Souvenir

Joanna Hogg’s fragmentary portrait of an emotionally abusive relationship is both painful and distancing.

Read more
Interviews, Melbourne International Film Festival

Taking Back the Culture: An Interview with And Then We Danced’s Levan Akin

Claire White speaks to And Then We Danced director Levan Akin about same-sex desire, claiming a traditional culture for your own, and the queering of John Hughes.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: Sequin in a Blue Room

A high schooler navigates the world of queer online dating in this hypnotic coming of age tale.

Read more
Interviews, Melbourne International Film Festival

Getting a Kick Out of It: An Interview with Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks’ Veronica Fury

At the Melbourne International Film Festival, Hunter Keeble talks with producer Veronica Fury about what makes an engaging documentary, the cultural impact of martial arts cinema, and the future of “films about films”.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: The Wild Goose Lake

Diao Yi’nan’s expressively shot Chinese neon-noir is a pointless exercise in hard-boiled posturing.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: Hotel By The River

Two occupants reflect on their pasts in a sleepy, snow-side hotel in this gentle, even-handed entry into Hang Sang-soo’s oeuvre.

Read more
Features, Melbourne International Film Festival

And Then We Danced: A Facebook Chat

Claire White and George Kapaklis reflect on the highlights of a tender, queer love story set in Georgia.

Read more
Interviews, Melbourne International Film Festival

#Big Truths: An Interview with Rolf de Heer

André Shannon speaks to Rolf de Heer about environmental filmmaking ahead of The Waiting Room’s VR premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: Present.Perfect.

Shengze Zhu foregrounds humanism in this pensive internet-age documentary about streaming and voyeurism.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: The Day Shall Come

Chris Morris targets American intelligence with acid-laced humour in this off-kilter, spitfire satire.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: In Fabric

Peter Strickland’s killer dress movie wears its influences proudly on its sleeve, but its competing stories are sloppily stitched together.

Read more
Features, Melbourne International Film Festival

Baby, or The Politics of Performance and Pain

Kai Perrignon challenges the state of political art in the age of cancel culture.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: Beanpole

Kantemir Balagov’s sophomore feature hangs heavy with the maternal emptiness of post-war Russia.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão

The colours, the colours, the colours.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: House of Hummingbird

This languid, slice of life portrait feels like a memory deep inside.

Read more
Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: The Grand Bizarre

Jodie Mack’s experimental quilt of sound and colour gives “life and agency” to inanimate fabric.

Read more

Posts navigation

Older posts

Follow us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
Create a website or blog at WordPress.com
Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×