Confessions (告白) (2010)

The game begins in earnest when a teacher announces in homeroom she knows who among them bullied her daughter to death, and that her exquisite revenge will come in time.

It's a revenge film that's told via the confessions of the guilty parties - which isn't common in this genre.


Read my full review in Fridae, first published on 24 November 2010.

Spring Fever (春风沉醉的夜晚) (2009)

A gay man, his accidental bisexual lover, and that lover’s girlfriend form the inverted Jules et Jim triangle of the film

Spring Fever was shot on the sly in Red China with its director serving a lengthy ban from making films.

We gather the director's ban was just too much to bear. There's just too much happening, so much being said that the film feels out of place with itself.


Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 18 November 2010.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: part 1

David Yates, a long-time TV productions director, ruined the previous Harry Potter film. Which really looked like a TV feature.

Yates redeems himself with a more epic-looking Deathly Hallows here.

That said, the decision to split the finale into 2 parts resurrects Tolkien's Return of the King problem - there's far too much exposition here building up to an all-action part 2.


Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 18 November 2010.

Magika (2010)

Two children find themselves transported into a universe populated by fairy tales and folk legends from the Malay-Indonesian archipelago and walk-on cameos from Cathay Keris and Merdeka film classics.

The film has a lo-fi, low-budget quality that evokes the Ed Wood "Let's put on a movie!" charm.


Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 10 November 2010.

Megamind (2010)

As Pixar retreats into making sequels, rival studios are learning how to write original stories.

Megamind subverts the superhero genre, with its anti-hero being forced to make a face turn when the Superman clone announces his retirement.

Will Ferrell is at the top of his comedy game here, making this a wacky film that stands up on repeated viewing.


Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 4 November 2010.

Flowers (花) (2010)

6 short stories about women in 6 decades of Japanese post-war history, filmed in the style and genre that were predominant in the period the stories are set in.

This is as close as you can get to a live action version of Millennium Actress, and just as touching and sentimental a tribute to Japanese cinema.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 4 November 2010.

Son of Babylon (ابن بابل) (2009)

Blake saw the universe in a grain of sand. Now you can see the nation and its peoples in a road trip movie.

A Kurdish grandmother and her grandson search for his disappeared father following the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Unlike other road trip movies, this one is really depressing and harrowing. I suppose you can watch this with Sandcastles as an "evacuation of national history" double-bill.


Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 3 November 2010.