Larry Oliver Film Reviews

T he movie-verse of Glasgow-born writer-director Lynne Ramsay is tough. Her four feature films to date – Ratcatcher (1999), Morvern Callar  (2002), We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011) and now You Were Never Really Here (2017) exhibit,  according to the critic Sheila Johnston, ‘a fascination with children and young people and the recurring, unresolvable themes of grief, guilt and, above all, death and its aftermath’. She signed on to adapt and direct Alice Sebold’s novel, The Lovely Bones , but was replaced by Peter Jackson. Then on the first day of shooting the western, Jane Got A Gun , she didn’t turn up and was the subject of a lawsuit. A sojourn in Santorini, Greece followed. She is a filmmaker absolutely committed to her art. When star Joaquin Phoenix plunged into water in a scene in You Were Never Really Here ’s fourth act, Ramsay was right there with him, off camera. Directing the actor – let’s not call him a Hollywood star – she would act out the scenes in front of...

  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 : The couple Grace ( Jennifer Lawrence ) and Jackson ( Robert Pattinson ) celebrate their child's first six months in a scene from the film, ' Die My Love ', adapted from Ariana Harwicz 's 2017 novel by co-writers Alice Birch , Enda Walsh and co-writer-director Lynne Ramsay . Still courtesy of Mubi (photo credit: Kimberley French) Ariana Harwicz’s 2017 novel, Die My Love has been Americanized and brought to the screen by producer-star Jennifer Lawrence and co-writer-director Lynne Ramsay, via co-writers Alice Birch and Enda Walsh, as well as Martin Scorsese, whose Sikelia Productions is also involved. It is a tough watch, one hundred and eighteen minutes in the company of an unstable young mother, Grace (Lawrence), a writer who places her baby, boyfriend and herself in jeopardy. You watch it in a state of constant anxiety, clenching your buttocks and feel the need to change your underwear afterwards. Harwicz’s novel is set in France. Ramsay’s film, shot b...