Larry Oliver Film Reviews

Pictured :  Ángela ( Miriam Garlo ) expecting her first child and greeted by the family dog in a scene from the Spanish film, ' Sorda ' (' Deaf '), written and directed by Eva Libertad , expanding her 2021 short of the same name. Still courtesy of Latido Films (Spain), Curzon (UK) The specific, we are often reminded, is universal. This is demonstrated by the Spanish film Sorda ( Deaf ), the feature debut of writer-director Eva Libertad, expanding her 2021 short. Sorda follows deaf potter Ángela (Miriam Garlo, the director’s sister) through pregnancy, birth and early motherhood as she struggles against displacement in the family. ‘I can speak for myself,’ she reminds others. It is not so much her role in the family that is under threat but her language - signing. Sorda could be about any community member whose language - and, by extension, lifeblood - is threatened by dominant social norms. The film is not merely specific. It feels authentic. No melodrama, just a se...

Pictured : Bob ( John Leguizamo ) and new friend Lily ( Barbie Ferreir a) partake in animal therapy in a scene from the 'found family' comedy-drama, ' Bob Trevino Likes It ', written and directed by Tracie Laymon . Still courtesy of Roadside Attractions (US) Who is the worst screen father? Not Darth Vader, because he discovered his light side just at the right moment. Probably Logan Roy from Succession . Noone wept at his funeral. But somewhere in the Top 100 is Bob Trevino (French Stewart) in the uplifting American comedy drama, Bob Trevino Likes It , written and directed by Tracie Laymon. He is a father so odious, he does not listen to his only child, Lily (Barbie Ferreira) when she tells him that she has been dumped by her boyfriend. Worse, he can’t stop talking about the retirement community women he has been dating, a process of discrimination he detests. ‘I have learned that I cannot bear watching women eat,’ he pronounces, inadvertently including Lily in that lis...

Pictured : Amin ( Tahar Rahim ) and Alpha ( Mélissa Boros ) in a scene from ' Alpha ', the third feature film from writer-director Julia Ducournau . Still courtesy of Neon (US), Curzon (UK), Diaphana Distribution (France) French writer-director Julia Ducournau has made two bold, kinetic horror films, Raw and Titane in which women behave very badly. She fuses ‘out there’ elements, like a car impregnating a woman or bloodsucking at a medical school, with family dynamics. In those first two movies, not only are no f-ks given, none are offered. Alpha , her third feature, which returned empty handed from the Cannes Film Festival, the site of her 2021 unexpected triumph with Titane , is different. The genre elements – specifically a disease that turns people into crumbling statues – don’t emanate from the protagonist, thirteen-year-old Alpha (Mélissa Boros). Rather, they are observed from without. Ducournau employs flashbacks in which Alpha’s father, Amin (Tahar Rahim) struggles...

  Pictured : 'You like the form. You don't like the content.' Agnes ( Eva Victor ) teaching Vladimir Nabokov's taboo-busting novel 'Lolita' in a scene from the film, ' Sorry, Baby ', written and directed by Eva Victor . Still courtesy of A24 (US) / Picturehouse Entertainment (UK)  Lately, people wishing to display virtue have been pictured holding cats. You have to feel sorry for the cats. They have no idea of the purpose into which they have been co-opted. Why am I being held so high? Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, has been pictured with a cat, with the intention of mocking the tyrant President Trump - currently Newsom’s full-time job. On the poster of her acclaimed film, Sorry, Baby , the writer-director-actor Eva Victor holds a cat she has liberated from houselessness in an apologetic way. ‘I’m sorry, cat,’ her character, Agnes, seems to say, ‘but I need you.’ People say things to cats that they wouldn’t say to a human being but having place...