Rites of Passage, Fluidity and Metamorphoses: The Imagery of Education in Lucile Hadžihalilović’s Innocence, Evolution and Earwig first published by Senses of Cinema, Issue 102, August 2022 Coming of age is often conceptualised in religious terms as a rite of passage and an initiation into adulthood – and so Lucile Hadžihalilović’s films figure themselves as ritualised mysteries, with children at…
Earwig (2021) Earwig first published by Sight and Sound, Summer 2022, as was the appended sidebar on other films by Lucile Hadzihalilovic Synopsis: Europe, the mid-1950s. Albert Scellinc ensures that the icy false teeth of his young ward Mia are regularly replaced. This routine is unsettled by instructions to ready Mia for her new home,…
Pensive (Rupintojelis)had its UK première at the Glasgow FrightFest 2023. Pensive (aka We Might Hurt Each Other, aka Rupinotjelis) derives its title for the ‘Pensive Christ’, a stereotypical depiction taken from the iconography of sculpture. This shows Jesus with his body scourged and suffering, and his head usually in one or two of his upraised…
Therapy Dogs has its European première at Glasgow Film Festival 2023 “You have to change. This is the last year of high school, you can’t be fooling around anymore. It’s time to start thinking about your future. What you wanna do, who you wanna be. And how you go through high school affects all of…
The Hand of God (È stato la mano di Dio) first published by Sight and Sound, Winter 2021-22 issue Review: Once upon a time in Naples, while waiting for a night bus, buxom Patrizia (Luisa Ranieri) accepts a ride from a mysterious man in a limo and is taken to the local mythic figure Monaciello,…
At the beginning of Shadows, 18-year-old Cody (Rahart Adams) is breaking bad. For he is starting to hang around young prostitutes in a peculiar bid to get closer to his tough-as-nails sex-working mother Jewel (Krista Allen) – who abandoned him as a baby, and has only recently reentered his life. He is also ‘upgrading’ from…
Love Exposure (Ai No Mukidashi) first published by Film4 Summary: Sion Sono’s Berlinale-winner is a Bible-length blend of the pious and the perverse that puts the rites back into teen rites of passage. Review: “Even a pervert has a life history,” declares epicene 17-year-old Yu Honda (Takahiro Nishijima) to fellow pupil – and girl of his dreams…
The Weird and Wonderful World of Ujicha: Violence Voyager / Burning Buddha Man first published by Sight & Sound March 2021 “Anything is possible in this world,” young Beniko hears at the beginning of Ujicha’s debut feature Burning Buddha Man (2013) – and, as if to confirm this, the speaker is a deer’s head mounted…
To the accompaniment of fey flutework from composer Katisse Buckingham, the opening credits of writer/director Jud Cremata’s feature debut Let’s Scare Julie offer elegant animated design in the style of Saul Bass. Here the name of each cast member appears, only to be erased by a red bar, until it becomes clear that these bars…
Adventureland first published by EyeforFilm Adventureland begins at a transitional point in its protagonist’s life. At a student party in 1987, 22-year-old James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) is celebrating his graduation, and is in the process of being dumped by his girlfriend – but at the same time he is looking forward to a ‘transformative’ summer…
Young Adult first published by movieScope In 2007, young director Jason Reitman and first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody teamed up to create whipsmart teen pregnancy comedy Juno. Now their latest collaboration, Young Adult, represents a reunion in more ways than one, as they revisit previous preoccupations (adolescence and parenthood) from the perspective of arrested grown-ups rather…