Review: Suncatcher (2021)
Kim Torres’ film portrays a kind of detachment that is all too familiar, but imbues it with a wistfulness rather than any sense of criticism.
John Bleasdale
About John Bleasdale
Posts by John Bleasdale:
Review: Night (2021)
Ahmad Saleh’s new animation is disconcertingly beautiful, but the tension between the intricate precision of the filmmaking and the brutal pain of the subject matter is precisely the point.
Review: Playtime (2021)
Simone Bozzelli’s film explores the dangers and pleasures of playfulness, and specifically unstructured play, where the rules have not been decided on, and identity can become fluid.
SXSW 2021: When Claude Got Shot
Gun crime and its consequences are the subject of When Claude Got Shot, a brilliantly wide-ranging and nuanced examination of a topic that all too often lives in black and white simplicities.
SXSW 2021: United States Vs Reality Winner (2021)
Using tapes of the FBIs initial conversation with Winner as well as access to her family and experts in the field, Kennebeck’s film is a forcefully constructed argument and a reclaiming of a character from the public space.
SXSW 2021: Spring Valley (2021)
History is made not only by what we record but how we record it. From Goya’s War Sketches to the mobile phone footage of George Floyd’s murder, the medium can – to quote Marshall McLuhan – be the message.
Berlinale review: Jack’s Ride (2021)
Part road movie, part character portrait, Jack’s Ride depends a great deal on the quiet charisma of its subject.
Rotterdam review: Landscapes of Resistance (2021)
As with Claude Landzmann’s Shoah, there is a tangible sense that you could almost scratch the screen and see into the past.
Review: You Cannot Kill David Arquette (2020)
As with wrestling itself, it feels besides the point to wonder about how real and how staged the documentary itself is.
