A classic of Pablo Almodovar's films, Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios is a treat to revisit. Completely over the top, slightly disorienting, but entirely entertaining, this is a gem from the 80s that follows Pepa as she navigates the end of her relationship with a married man. Filled with unlikely coincidences and excellent shoulder pads, this is an excellent mid-week watch.
Waltz with Bashir is one of Dominique's favorite movies because it is so multi-faceted, it is a film rich for analysis. Waltz With Bashir is an animated documentary; the animation resembles a graphic novel. The documentary follows the director, Ari Folman, as he journeys to discover what really happened in the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Folman was a part of the Israeli army in the Lebanese Civil War. There are, of course, limitations with the way this film understands the Isreali-Palestinian-Lebanese conflicts, but it's a fascinating piece of culture nevertheless.
EPILEPSY AND SEIZURE WARNING: Thelma, directed by Joachim Trier, is one part coming of age story, one part murder mystery, and one part supernatural thriller, blended together in a hypnotic, visually stunning movie. Raised by conservative and emotionally abusive Christian parents, the titular Thelma is a quiet, lonely university student. But when she realizes she's attracted to one of her female friends, Anja, she begins to experience supernatural episodes that may be God punishing her, or may be her own power manifesting for the first time. Thelma unfolds in its quiet moments, in its lingering shots of hallways, buildings, and forests, clearly manned by an even-handed and in-control Trier. Yet even in all the silence, Thelma's magic wraps around the viewer as much as it does the bewildered characters.
"An Icelandic saga of the highest order" is how an IMDB review of this movie begins. Set in rural Iceland, this movie, directed by Grímur Hákonarson, follows two brothers who both own ancestral, prize-winning sheep farms. One day, the village discovers that the local sheep have been infected with scrapie, a fatal, degenerative, and highly contagious nerve condition, and they're faced with the prospect of sacrificing their herds to prevent a wider outbreak. It's a touching, slightly unnerving saga.
What would you do if you found out that you share dreams with someone you just met? This question underlines the plot of Hungarian director Ildiko Enyedi’s On Body and Soul—a quirky and ethereal romance, though not one for the faint of heart. (Let’s just say it’s set in a slaughterhouse.)
This movie is quite a treat - though it took Dominique a few tries before she finally sat down to watch it, Okja, directed by Bong Joon-Ho, is a Netflix Original movie in which a young girl and her best friend and super pig, Okja, get caught in a battle between environmentalists and a multi-national corporation. Delightfully dystopic, this is a movie well timed for our current environmental crisis.
A single Icelandic mother and her son embark on an adventure, albeit, not a particularly fun one. Struggling with poverty, the mother and son duo are forced to vacate their apartment, return their recently adopted cat to the shelter, and depend on food samples at the supermarket to complete meals. But along the way, they meet a Guinea-Bissauan refugee applying for asylum in the country, with whom a gentle and kind friendship emerges. It's a sweet, thoughtful movie for when you want to escape your own walls.
What happens when someone is falsely accused of a crime? What happens when that crime is pedophilia? The Hunt is set in a small Danish town, where Lucas, a daycare teacher, has to face unwelcome and potentially life-threatening allegations, while at the same time learning to navigate the toxicity of a small town armed against him. A less contemporary film than the previous two, but a great watch nonetheless!
In The Eternal Feminine (Los adioses, dir. Natalia Beristáin), Mexican director Natalia Beristáin portrays the life of Rosario Castellanos, the renowned Mexican poet and diplomat. Interlacing Castellanos's youth and her days as a student in Mexico and Guatemala with the tensions in her marriage later in life, Beristáin presents a complex portrait of a profoundly feminist figure, whose writing and thinking was years beyond her time. This is a sweet and short historical fiction, perfect for a rainy day.
We're always looking for great documentaries that transport us to different places and times. Virunga takes you to Easten Congo, where you meet a family of orphaned gorillas and their caretakers, who are battling dangerous political conditions to keep the gorillas alive. It's a poignant, gripping, and heart-wrenching journey.
In 2010 the Iranian government briefly imprisoned director Jafar Panahi, and officially banned him from making films for 20 years. Taxi is Panahi's third film since the ban went into effect. A faux-documentary shot entirely on dashboard cameras and mobile phones, the movie follows Panahi as he drives his taxi around Tehran during a single afternoon. Old women, a young accident victim, a banned film distributor, Panahi's young niece, and old friends all pass through his cab as the city bustles around them. Almost entirely plotless, the film lives on the dialogue with the passengers, which can be funny, heartfelt, irritating, or mournful, but always orbits the political. Panahi crafts a tender portrait and stiletto critique of his home city, all the more amazing because it seems to happen by chance.
Incendies is an astonishing work. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad's play of the same name, this movie follows a pair of twins who return to their mother's (unnamed) country in the Middle East to uncover the family's past. They embark on a heart-breaking journey that exposes the impact of a brutal civil war. This is a tough, but beautiful and moving film.
We loved this film—it depicts a middle-aged woman waging a war on a developer looking to buy out her apartment to demolish a classic building on Recife's coast. The main character is a force of nature - she is the best kind of stubborn, sticking to her (literal) ground, despite what anyone around her says or thinks. This is a forceful and beautiful movie, with an excellent, empowering, and bewildering ending.
