Birdeater (2023)

Don’t take medication which isn’t intended for you. Think twice about taking medication which is intended for you. These are the takeaway lessons of Birdeater (2023) – a film which relies heavily on altered states for both its linear and experimental plot points. This is as much of a moral standpoint as anything you get […]

Vulcanizadora (2024)

There’s a scene in Vulcanizadora where, in the darkness of the woods, one of the main characters unpacks a Discman and some analogue speakers he’s brought along to entertain his friend on their camping trip. Nothing works; the cable isn’t connected to the speakers at first, but they hiss anyway; the Discman skips and stutters, […]

A Desert (2024)

There’s a moment during the first act of A Desert when one character asks another character, an outsider, ‘You like being a tourist?’ It’s this divided America which forms the unstable foundations of the film, looking at what happens to people choosing to be tourists in their own country, spectators in a version of America […]

Art for Everybody (2023)

If you don’t immediately recognise the name of Thomas Kinkade, then chances are you’ll recognise his work. He’s famous for painting a kind of pre-industrial utopia, all cobblestones, pristine cottage gardens and picturesque landscapes which in truth feel as far away from ordinary life for most people – if not further away – than many […]

SXSW 2025: Mermaid (2025)

Mermaid (2025) opens, perhaps deceivingly, on someone living the high life. It certainly looks like the high life at least: here’s a guy, on a yacht, sipping a chilled cocktail and listening to music. It’s textbook high life. The fact that this is a post-divorce celebration mars things slightly, but mainly that happens when a […]