Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  Pictured : A panicked Sara ( Eva Kostić ) in a scene from North Macedonian co-writer-director  Kosara Mitić 's riveting drama, 17 . Still courtesy of Black Cat Productions / Totem Films .  There are films that ‘trigger’ and there is 17 , the debut feature of North Macedonian co-writer (with Ognjen Sviličić) and director Kosara Mitić. The audience experiences a state of heightened anxiety throughout the entire duration of this teenage drama, more so than in the average horror film. 17 is a compelling and unforgiving look at the impact of male behaviour on young women. Teenage hormones, arrogance and an impulse to dehumanise drives young students to use and abuse their classmates, with little effective adult supervision or censure. Mitić holds an unflattering mirror up to her country and asks, where is education? The film opens with two boys, Filip (Dame Joveski) and Caki (Petar Manic), taking turns kissing Sara (Eva Kostić). One of them decides to force himself into he...

  Films that revolve around pregnancies are rarely about the pregnancy itself. They are really concerned with confronting problems that exist outside of expecting a child. This is because, once a child is born, you won’t have time for those problems. Instead, you’ll be devoted to a tiny being whose sole purpose – at least for the first few months – is to feed, excrete and cry a lot. You may think you are teaching the baby words, but the infant is teaching you more curse words than you normally would use, making you nostalgic for back pains and morning sickness. A Bump Along The Way is a comedy-drama from Northern Ireland nurtured into being by a trio of women: writer Tess McGowan, producer Louise Gallagher and director Shelly Love. It is a ‘what if’ movie: what if a forty four-year old woman, Pamela (Bronagh Gallagher) having had van hanky panky with a twenty four-year old driver who lives with his mother, suddenly became pregnant, having been estranged from her vegan, environme...

  Pictured : 'I took four trains to get here and we're seeing the movie.' Eden ( Ilana Glazer , right) prepares the heavily pregnant Dawn ( Michelle Buteau ) for entertainment in the laugh-out-loud comedy, ' Babes ', written by Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz and directed by Pamela Adlon . Still courtesy of Neon (US), Universal Pictures (UK) The misleadingly titled Babes is a comedy about female friendship in which two young women support each other during pregnancy, one in marriage, the other outside it. For a film as funny as it is, it did not attract a wide audience. I put it down to the advertising: the thinner of the two women, Eden ( Ilana Glazer , who co-wrote the screenplay with Josh Rabinowitz ) stares at a positive pregnancy test while her friend Dawn ( Michelle Buteau ) looks on. If I take it at face value, so what? Contrast it with the poster for Baby Boom – Diane Keaton in a business suit holding a baby - where you can see the potential for comedy. (‘I ca...