Films

Shadow of the Vampire

A clever little piece mythologising the filming of Nosferatu. Willem Dafoe is fabulous as a gurning vampire, playing a vampire acting as an actor acting as a vampire. It’s a bit predictable - director’s q&a said he toned down the campiness of the original script. Shame.

Slow

This started out as a quite a sweet, sad drama but I just found the guy a bit too tiresome. I think I was supposed to be sad about their relationship but honestly I just wanted her to move on.

Sultana’s Dream

I wanted to love this. I almost did. Possibly the most beautiful animation I’ve ever seen. Couple that with a solid feminist angle and what’s not to love? I would’ve liked a little more structure - more about her parents, the places, Begum Rokeya. But it was still lovely.

Sweet Dreams

Underwhelmed by this one. The trailer had made it out to be deeply weird but it was mostly straight faced and gloomy. An interesting setup - Dutch East Indies in decay, inheritance and illegitimate children - but it didn’t really do very much with it.

The Animal Kingdom

Decent French people-turning-into-animals film. Some fairly heavy handed allegories about tolerance, growing up etc but also… lots of half-animal people. Fun.