In Review Online

1 week ago | inreviewonline.com | Luke Gorham

“I’ve got to start something,” Nino, the eponymous protagonist of Pauline Loquès’ feature debut, announces early in the film to his mother at the kitchen table. It’s a Friday afternoon, and barely hours have passed since Nino learned about the diagnosis that will drastically alter his life. Not that you’d be able to tell from his face, a face as impenetrable as they come, belonging to up-and-coming Québécois actor Théodore Pellerin.

1 week ago | inreviewonline.com | Luke Gorham

Immersing yourself in a new film by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne is akin to reluctantly catching up with an old friend. As of late, there’s something almost too familiar about the brothers’ tried and tested brand of social-realist cinema that mines the fringes of Belgium for disquieting stories of its working class denizens.

1 week ago | inreviewonline.com | Luke Gorham

In Sentimental Value, there’s a scene where the veteran filmmaker Gustav Borg, played by Stellan Skarsgård, explains to his newly discovered lead actress, Rachel Kemp, how his mother hanged herself using the very same stool being used. Poor Rachel is overwhelmed by the extreme intimacy with which Borg confides in her about his past. This seemingly trauma-laden relic is later revealed to be a random IKEA stool, when Borg’s young daughter Agnes mentions to him this exchange.

1 week ago | inreviewonline.com | Luke Gorham

No matter how common the surroundings or how ordinary the story may be, a Christian Petzold film always catches the viewer by surprise. His films depict worlds where familiar colors, worn-out songs, and well-known emotions operate according to an entirely different logic — and as mesmerized passers-by that we are, the real pleasure lies in trying to find our way there.

1 week ago | inreviewonline.com | Luke Gorham

Peak Everything (or Amour Apocalypse, its easily translatable French title) is only Anne Émond’s second film to premiere internationally, following Our Loved Ones — easily her best film — which bowed at Locarno in 2015. What’s happened to Émond’s filmmaking in the decade since is a tale of what it means to target success in Quebec’s box office market, which is usually seen as an oasis or a fantasy version of Canadian filmmaking compared to the English-speaking part of the country.