Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  Picture : A long way from New York, producer-host Edna ( Chloë Sevigny ) greets a horse in a scene from Spanish-Argentinian director, Amalia Ulman 's comedy, ' Magic Farm '. Still courtesy of Mubi/The Match Factory . Magic Farm , Argentina-Spanish writer-director Amalia Ulman’s follow up to her 2021 feature debut, El Planeta , is the sort of film that looks like it was made when the director’s original planned project set in her home country fell through. She has assembled a name American cast (Chloë Sevigny, Alex Wolff, Simon Rex, Joe Apollonio) and gives them precious little to do. They bicker, panic, embrace, have toilet difficulties or rush to catch the next flight back to New York over the course of a flimsy lightweight empty empanada of a movie. Yet there is pleasure to be had watching this consolation prize, contractual obligation. It clears the moviegoing palate like a sorbet, making you ready to taste something new and exciting. For his second completed feature, ...

  Pictured : Cristina (Marion Cotillard), the seemingly aloof 'Snow Queen' featured in co-writer-director  Lucile Hadžihalilović 's film, ' La Tour de Glace ' (' The Ice Tower '). Still courtesy of Goodfellas (France)   Director Lucile Hadžihalilović’s French language fourth feature, La Tour de Glace ( The Ice Tower ) is a film about reflective surfaces. Emotionally distanced, with spare use of dialogue, it tells the story of an orphaned young teenager, Jeanne (Clara Pacini) who becomes obsessed with a movie star, Cristina (Marion Cotillard) cast as the Snow Queen in an adaptation of a Hans Christian Anderson story. Jeanne only sees Cristina ‘in character’. The film is less about celebrity worship – Hadžihalilović eschews modern culture, setting her drama before the advent of mobile phones – and more about understanding the world with a diminished emotional and verbal vocabulary. Reality is fragmented. There is only what you can see and touch. Modern film...