Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  Pictured : Cata ( Zoe Stein ) and her grandfather, Tomeu ( Lluis Homar ) in a scene from  Spanish writer-director Lucía Aleñar Iglesias ’ feature debut, ' Forastera '. Still courtesy of Alpha Violet I am tempted to describe Forastera , Spanish writer-director Lucía Aleñar Iglesis’ feature debut, expanded from a short film of the same name, as a ‘coming of old age’ story. In it, seventeen-year-old Cata (Zoe Stein) inhabits the spirit of her late grandmother, Catalina (Marta Angelat), having discovered her dead body face down outside her coastal Mallorca home. Told from Cata’s point of view, the film withholds some information – Cata’s sister, Eva (Martina Garcia) is thinly-sketched, the grief of her grandfather, Tomeu (Lluis Homar) only sensed through a narrow set of actions. For the most part, Cata is catalytic, provoking others through her version of cosplay, as she negotiates a suspended sense of grief. The film is more needlepoint than drama. For an audience to be emot...

  Pictured : B est friends Alex ( Aviva Wrede ) and Laura ( Embla Ingelman-Sundberg ) arrive in Warsaw at the start of Swedish writer-director Fanny Ovesen 's super-excellent feature debut,  Leva Lite  ( Live A Little ).   Still courtesy of Breaking Glass Pictures / Scandinavian Film Distribution    Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. This sentiment is attributed to boxer Mike Tyson but could equally apply to best friends Alex (Aviva Wrede) and Laura (Embla Ingelman-Sundberg), the young protagonists of Swedish writer-director Fanny Ovesen’s super-excellent feature debut, Leva Lite ( Live A Little ) . For two years, they have planned an interrail trip across Europe, stopping at the capital cities Warsaw, Prague, Berlin and Paris; you could call their trip ‘Caps Lock’. However, they come unstuck while following the advice, ‘don’t think, just drink’, threatening to unravel not just their friendship but Laura’s relationship with her lo...

  Pictured : Korean adoptee Anna ( Anna Sargent ) is hugged by her sister Emily ( Ali Ahn ) in a scene from the Florida-set family drama, ' Take Me Home ', written and directed by Liz Sargent , the star's adopted sister. Still courtesy of Tribeca Films Take Me Home , written and directed by Korean American adoptee Liz Sargent, is problematic. It is a drama about an American pinch point: what happens when a Florida-based family who has adopted a ‘disabled’ Korean child, loses the ability to care for her as an adult, in this instance, through both death and cognitive decline? We learn early on that there is no official safety net. What the family has to do is so extreme that you can’t believe they would get away with it. It raises another question: what happens when the surviving parent gets caught? Sargent’s film bears the Sundance logo, which is to say it is conceived with a social purpose, espouses liberal values, shows something sticky and awkward, makes the audience oo...

  Pictured : 'Do you mind if I sit here for two hours?' Thomas ( Vladimir Vulević ) in a scene from German writer-director Angela Schanelec 's relationship drama, ' My Wife Cries ' ( Meine Frau weint ). Still courtesy of Berlinale . The films of German writer-director Angela Schanelec require context. Her cinema is of the domestic. Characters ride bicycles, are cultured and have blue or white-collar jobs. They are considerate inasmuch as circumstances will allow. Nothing excessive occurs on camera. Schanelec lowers the threshold for what might be considered exceptional. She minimises the expressiveness of her actors. Her films aren’t deadpan. Rather her characters are focussed on what is front of them at that particular moment. There is little intentional humour or extra-diegetic music. Credits are handwritten. The part played by each person in the production isn’t differentiated. In some scenes, Schanelec places her camera far from the action. An event unfolds; we ...

  Pictured : Having witnessed a sexual assault, eight-year-old Josephine ( Mason Reeves ) finds herself in the back of a police car with the victim ( Syra McCarthy ) in writer-director Beth de Araújo's troubling drama, ' Josephine '. Still courtesy of Berlinale / Sundance Film Festival Review contains significant plot detail and triggering material However you respond to writer-director Beth de Araújo’s second feature, Josephine – her feature debut, Soft & Quiet , was released under the Blumhouse [horror] banner in 2022 - you are unlikely to forget it. The titular Josephine (Mason Reeves) is an athletic-minded, father-worshipping eight-year-old girl, who witnesses a sexual assault after racing ahead of her Liverpool Football Club-supporting father, Damien (Channing Tatum) in a San Francisco public park. In looking for her, Damien takes a wrong turn – cue early gasps from the audience. Josephine, variously referred to as Jo by Dad or JoJo by her dancer mother, Claire (G...

  Pictured : Accused of intentionally inciting the burning of head scarves at the institution where she teaches, Roya (Turkish actress  Melisa Sözen ) considers whether she should confess in Iranian writer-director Mahnaz Mohammadi 's drama, ' Roya ', screened at the 2026 Berlinale. Still courtesy of Totem Films / PakFilm . Drawn from her experience of incarceration, having fallen foul of the Iranian regime like so many  writers, directors and critical thinkers in recent times, writer-director Mahnaz Mohammadi’s film Roya exerts a firm grip on its audience’s sympathy. For a long stretch, point-of-view camera shots represent ‘guest 2648’, detained teacher, Roya (Turkish actress Melisa Sözen) as she is intentionally disorientated, assaulted, berated and invited to make a confession, that she incited a spate of scarf burning at the institution where she works. We learn that her sister, Samira (Maryam Palizban) has died following complaints to an agent. Unlike Samira, Roya ha...