Larry Oliver Film Reviews

Contains spoilers In her third collaboration with director Claire Denis, Avec Amour et Acharnement (‘With Love and Fury’, re-titled in English as Both Sides of the Blade ), Juliette Binoche plays Sara, a radio talk show host who is torn between two men, her partner Jean (Vincent Lindon), an ex-con and former rugby player whose bi-racial son from his first marriage, Marcus (Issa Penca) is raised by his mother, Nelly (Bulle Ogier) and her ex, François (Grégoire Colin) who re-appears in her life first outside the offices of the radio station where she works and then as he goes into business running an agency for young rugby players. Unusually, Denis doesn’t make Sara her principal viewpoint character. Rather, she gives equal screen time to Jean, this also being Lindon’s third film with Denis. Outdoing both of them, Colin re-unites with Denis for their seventh film together, after Nenette et Boni , Beau Travail , Vendredi Soir , The Intruder , 35 Shots of Rum and Bastards . If nothing ...

  High Life , French director Claire Denis’ first foray into English language storytelling, science fiction and, erm, Robert Pattinson, boasts in its credits a ‘cosmic companion’. I wonder exactly what this is and whether they have voting rights at the Cesars. The phrase suggests a star. Not a motion picture star - that would be Pattinson. The one that appears to shine down upon you from many light years away, guiding you even as in its own time zone it is already burnt out. No, that wouldn’t be Pattinson. Denis is 73 years old and makes a science fiction film as if she hadn’t seen one for forty years – Silent Running and 2001: A Space Odyssey appear to be are influences, as does One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest .  She offers us retro-science fiction; the future as imagined back in 1973. The space ship, simply identified as ‘7’, floats rather than rockets towards a trajectory. It resembles a cereal box, one with no free toy. I say that, but I really must mention the f-box, a ...

  Pictured: Agnes Shakespeare ( Jessie Buckley , centre) is expectant at a production of her husband's play, 'Hamlet' in a scene from the film, ' Hamnet ', directed by Asian-American auteur,  Chloë  Zhao . Still courtesy of Focus Features . Between Friday 21 February 2025 and Sunday 8 February 2026, I have watched and reflected on a further fifty-two feature films directed by women. The challenge just to watch the films – not to review them – was set by Melissa Silverstein, founder and publisher of ‘Women in Hollywood’, in 2015. I consciously select feature films and not documentaries and only those intended for cinema, that is, commercial release. My rationale is these films are made to compete in a global marketplace. By demonstrating their artistic worth and commercial appeal, these films advocate for more films from women directors to be greenlit, addressing prejudice. Many of these films I watch at festivals. In the case of this volume, at Berlin, Brussels, ...

  Pictured : Alboury ( Isaach de Bankolé ) patiently awaits the release of his brother's body in a scene from ' The Fence ', director Claire Denis ' adaptation of Bernard-Marie Koltes ' 1979 play, ' Black Battles with Dogs '. Still: (c) Curiosa, Saint Laurent, Vixens In her 79 th year, French director Claire Denis returns to Africa for her 17 th fictional feature film, The Fence , an English language drama based on a French play, ‘Black Battles With Dogs’ by Bernard-Marie Koltes, first performed in 1979. Alboury (Denis’ frequent collaborator, Isaach de Bankolé) appears at the fence of a ‘West African construction site’ to claim the body of his brother (Brian Begnan) apparently hit by a bulldozer; the film’s production notes specify the setting as Nigeria. He insists on do so immediately in order to assuage the grief of the deceased’s mother. The foreman, Horn (Matt Dillon in his third collaboration with a French female director in six years, after Proxima ...