Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  Pictured : Teenagers Coley ( Maya Da Costa , left) and Sonya ( Myra Malloy , right) explore the Oregon countryside and their own feelings for each other, in the teen romance, ' Girls Like Girls ', co-written (with Stefanie Scott ) and directed by Hayley Kiyoko . Still courtesy of Focus Features / Universal  Girls Like Girls is not the first song to be turned into a movie – Girls Just Want To Have Fun , inspired by Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 hit single and starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Helen Hunt and Shannon Doherty, was released in 1985. However, it is the first to be done so by its singer, in this case biracial American Hayley Kiyoko, by way of her novel published in 2023. It is an example of a piece of intellectual property squeezed almost to its limit by its author. A musical, stage show, TV spin off, perhaps even a video game, all remain options for the artist who first released the song in 2015 and saw it become a queer anthem, the video for which attracted 100 million view...

  Pictured : Sally Owens ( Nicole Kidman , left) and her older sister Gillian ( Sandra Bulloc k, right) reunited for the sequel, ' Practical Magic 2 ', adapted from Alice Hoffman 's 2021 novel, ' The Book of Magic ' by Akiva Goldsman , Georgia Pritchett and Kelly Marcel and directed by Susanne Bier . Still courtesy of Warner Bros . For those who remember Danish director Susanne Bier as the woman who, working with writer Anders Thomas Jensen, engaged audiences with the moral dramas Open Hearts , Brothers and A Second Chance , that auteur is entirely absent from her sequel Practical Magic 2 , an adaptation of Alice Hoffman’s 2021 novel, ‘The Book of Magic’, the fourth and final book of her ‘Practical Magic’ series. Admittedly, there is a character in a coma brought about entirely by a young woman’s love, but the Susanne Bier of Dogme 95 would have focussed on whether the woman, witch’s daughter Kylie Owens (Joey King) should release the comatose Gideon (Xolo Maridu...

  Pictured : Displaced vehicular resident Amanda Ogle ( Rose Byrne ) shares to a group of addicts, her hand held by group leader, Barbara ( Octavia Spencer ) in a scene from the Seattle-set fact based drama, ' Tow ', written by  Jonathan Keasey and Brant Boivin and directed by Stephanie Laing . Still courtesy of Vertical / Roadside Attractions (US) How did American director Stephanie Laing expect audiences react to her film, Tow ? Insufficiently funny to be a comedy, lacking in sharp edges to be a drama, it relates the fact-based story of ‘vehicular resident’ Amanda Ogle and her attempt to retrieve her car, a 1991 blue Toyota Camry, from a Seattle-based towing company. The cast is stacked: Academy Award nominee Rose Byrne, Academy Award winner Ariana DeBose, Elsie Fisher (from Eighth Grade ), Octavia Spencer, Demi Lovato and the fiercely-imposing comedian Lea DeLaria, not to mention Simon Rex (from Red Rocket ) and Corbin Bernsen, the latter as a lawyer who never ...

  Pictured : Bonny ( Ida Fischer , left) and Lea ( Frida Hornemann , right) perform on the eve of a recording of a television talent contest. A scene from German writer-director Eva Trobisch 's third feature, ' Home Stories ' (' Etwas ganz Besonderes '). Still courtesy of  Pandora Film Verleih (Germany). For her third feature, Etwas ganz Besonderes (English title: Home Stories ) German writer-director Eva Trobisch focuses on a fractured family gathered to support sixteen-year-old Lea (Frida Hornemann) who has been selected to progress in an ‘X Factor’ style television music talent contest. The English title refers to the segment of the show that illustrates the contestant’s background, intended to make them relatable. These shows aren’t just about the voice. They intend to hook the audience with the competitor’s journey. But Trobisch doesn’t remake Little Miss Sunshine for the German market. Her film is emphatically not a comedy. Rather it explores unspoken tens...

  Pictured : Three young women ( Mona Berard ,  Yowa-Angélys Tshikaya and  Shirel Nataf ) attend a medical consultation accompanying their new flatmate, Héloïse ( Héloïse Volle , bottom left) in a scene from the Belgian film, ' Les Filles du Ciel ' (' Girls from Above ') written and directed by  Bérangère McNeese . Still courtesy of Memento Films (Belgium) For her feature debut, Les Filles du Ciel ( Girls From Above ) actress turned writer-director Bérangère McNeese has produced the archetypal Belgian film: social-realist, concerned with people on the margins who, having been dealt low blows, nevertheless find ways to get by. These ways are not always safe or legal, but we are invited to sympathise and in the process we learn (or re-learn) that there is good in everyone. In perpetuating a national cinema that only concerns itself with those in desperate need, McNeese and other directors working in Belgian cinema don’t offer role models for their audienc...

  Pictured : Sisters Agnes ( Judy Davis ), Luke ( Miriam Margolyes ) and Mary Clare ( Jacki Weaver ) take a road trip with young Brian ( Elijah Tamati ) in order to recover the deeds to their convent in writer-director Nat Boltt 's New Zealand-set family-friendly comedy drama, ' Holy Days ', adapted from the 2013 novel by children's author, Joy Cowley . Still courtesy of Lightbulb Film Distribution (UK) Holy Days , the directorial debut of South African-born Nat Boltt, is the kind of road movie we’ve seen a bajillion times before. You take a group of characters with no aptitude for travel, much less with each other, put them in a car on a mission with a deadline and see what happens. Boltt is better known by her full first name, Nathalie, credited as such in seven seasons of Riverdale . Her film, set in New Zealand in 1974, is based on a 2013 novel by children’s author Joy Cowley, whose work Boltt had adapted before (the 2012 short film, The Silk , which she co-directe...

  Pictured : Paul ( Viggo Ferreira-Redler , centre) shows his unhappiness towards his mother, Clémence ( Vicky Krieps , left) in a scene from writer-director Anna Cazenave Cambet 's film, ' Love Me Tender ', based on Constance  Debré 's 2020 novel. Still courtesy of Tandem (France) / Peccadillo Pictures (UK) After two viewings, I still don’t know what to make of Love Me Tender , writer-director Anna Cazenave Cambet’s adaptation of Constance Debré’s 2020 semi-autobiographical novel, featuring Vicky Krieps in the lead role as Clémence, a lawyer turned novelist who reveals her lesbian identity to her ex-husband, Laurent (Antoine Reinartz) and finds herself separated from her eight-year-old son, Paul (Viggo Ferreira-Redler) as a result. It is a film that respects Debré’s first person narration; there is no attempt to understand or justify Laurent’s response, psychologically or socially. This is a film that explores Clémence’s victimhood and how it impacts her relationship...

  Pictured : Angela ( Olivia Wilde , centre) and Joe ( Seth Rogen , standing) listen to their guests with interest in a scene from the marital comedy, ' The Invite ', adapted from the 2020 Spanish film, ' Sentimental ' by screenwriters Rashida Jones and Will McCormack and directed by Olivia Wilde . Still courtesy of A24 (US) / Black Bear (UK) The Invite , adapted by screenwriters Rashida Jones and Will McCormack from Cesc Gay’s 2020 Spanish film, Sentimental (English title ‘The People Upstairs’), feels like a personal project for actress-turned-director Olivia Wilde. Wilde was publicly humiliated by or on behalf of her estranged husband Jason Sudeikis in the run-up to the release of her 2022 psychological thriller, Don’t Worry Darling , whose request for child custody was served to her while she was on stage at Comic Con. Wilde knows something of the pain of a relationship that has run its course. She channels this into her filmmaking. The bulk of The Invite is set ...