Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  Pictured : Frankenstein at the Movies. Or rather his creature ( Christian Bale ), as seen in writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal 's Marmite 'monster' 1930s road movie, ' The Bride! '. Still courtesy of Warner Bros  Few sophomore films from acclaimed directors are as bat sh-t crazy as writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride . Her follow-up to The Lost Daughter portrays Frankenstein’s creation (Christian Bale), broadly as imagined in the 1931 Boris Karloff picture and its 1935 sequel, as a lonely film addict seeking a female companion. This reanimated figure, the subject of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, appears to have been brought to life in the 1930s rather than a century earlier. Gyllenhaal presents the creature (let’s not use the word ‘monster’) as a child of cinema doomed to impersonate past – and future – portrayals of itself, imagining itself as a song and dance man rather than forever pursued by an angry mob - though the latter is inevitable. The creature i...

  Pictured : Kenna ( Maika Monroe ) and Ledger ( Tyriq Withers ) in a scene from the second chance at happiness romance, ' Reminders of Him ', adapted from Colleen Hoover 's novel by the author in collaboration with Lauren Levine , and directed by Vanessa Caswill . Still courtesy of Universal Pictures Dear Scotty, I just watched the movie, Reminders of Him , based on the novel by Colleen Hoover, and it features letters written to you by the protagonist, Kenna (Maika Monroe) in two or more exercise books, which you won’t get a chance to read because you died in an automobile accident. I figured I do the same. Not die in a car accident, the writing. The letters help Kenna explain herself to other people far better than looking them in the eye and inviting tricky questions. Those who publish their thoughts online know this all too well. Kenna literally carries her history with her. She might leave it at a bar by accident, but only because she wants to, subconsciously, especi...

  Pictured : Marta ( Alba Rohrwacher , right) shares a bed with a cut-out of Korean pop star,  Jirko ( Sungku Jung , left). To borrow from The Purple Rose of Cairo , he's two-dimensional, but you can't have everything. A scene from director Isabel Coixet 's Italian film, ' Three Goodbyes ' (Italian title ' Tre Ciotole '), adapted from Michela Murgia 's short stories by Coixet and  Enrico Audenino . Still courtesy of Vision Distribution (Italy)  The title Tre Ciotole , an Italian film from Spanish director Isabel Coixet, translates into English as ‘three bowls.’ It has been re-named Three Goodbyes for the wider international market, lest it be mistaken for a sports movie. A bowl needs an arresting prefix to be included in a film title, for example, The Golden Bowl , director James Ivory’s 2000 adaptation of Henry James’ novel. Bowls are utilitarian, glazed, rarely ornate, but indispensable for the consumption of soup. You associate three bowls with a fa...

  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...