“Breath” by Narges Abyar (2016)

International update

Good script, personages, direction and images

Growing up in pre-revolutionary Iran

IMDB 7,7

Original title: Nafas

Cast: Mehran Ahmadi, Pantea Panahiha, Sareh Nour Mousavi
Director: Narges Abyar
Writer: Narges Abyar
Music by Masoud Sekhavat Doust
Cinematography by Saed Nikzat
Film Editing by Sajjad Pahlavanzadeh

“Never Rarely Sometimes Always” by Eliza Hittman (2020)

Best movies seen in 2020

A Weekend Treat!

Great script, personages, images and message
Excellent direction
Top gender content

A movie about a 17-years-old young girl who has to deal with a pregnancy that wasn’t planned and that she doesn’t want
A movie about girl power, without much glamour, just girls doing what has to be done
A quiet but intense movie

Rotten Tomatoes Critics 8,6
Metascore 9,2
Roger Ebert 8,8
Rotten Tomatoes Audience 6,8
IMDB 7,2
Average critics 8,9
Average public 7,0

Cast: Sidney Flanigan, Talia Ryder, Théodore Pellerin
Director: Eliza Hittman
Writer: Eliza Hittman
Cinematographer: Hélène Louvart
Editor: Scott Cummings
Composer: Julia Holter

“Never Rarely Sometimes Always” by Eliza Hittman (2020)

MY YEAR’S FAVORITES (Aug. 2019 – July 2020)

Great script, personages, images and message
Excellent direction
Top gender content

A movie about a 17-years-old young girl who has to deal with a pregnancy that wasn’t planned and that she doesn’t want
A movie about girl power, without much glamour, just girls doing what has to be done
A quiet but intense movie

Rotten Tomatoes Critics 8,6
Metascore 9,2
Roger Ebert 8,8
Rotten Tomatoes Audience 6,8
IMDB 7,2
Average critics 8,9
Average public 7,0

Cast: Sidney Flanigan, Talia Ryder, Théodore Pellerin
Director: Eliza Hittman
Writer: Eliza Hittman
Cinematographer: Hélène Louvart
Editor: Scott Cummings
Composer: Julia Holter

“Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity” by Mina Shum (2002)

Tribute to Mina Shum (2/3)

Great script, personages, direction and content

A young girl tries magic to bring her mother happiness: it works for everyone around her except for the mother
As in her first feature, Double Happiness, women are depicted as flexible, adapting themselves to new circumstances while men heavily suffer from the Confucian patriarchal ideology in which they are still stuck

Rotten Tomatoes Critics 5,3
Metascore —
Roger Ebert —
Rotten Tomatoes Audience 7,2
IMDB 6,5
Average critics 5,3
Average public 6,9

Cast: Sandra Oh, Valerie Tian, Ric Young
Director: Mina Shum
Writers: Dennis Foon, Mina Shum
Music by Andrew Lockington
Cinematography by Peter Wunstorf
Film Editing by Alison Grace

“Never Rarely Sometimes Always” by Eliza Hittman (2020)

Great script, personages, images and message (8)
Excellent direction (9)
Top gender content (10)

A movie about a 17-years-old young girl who has to deal with a pregnancy that wasn’t planned and that she doesn’t want
A movie about girl power, without much glamour, just girls doing what has to be done
A quiet but intense movie

Rotten Tomatoes Critics 8,6
Metascore 9,2
Roger Ebert 8,8
Rotten Tomatoes Audience 6,8
IMDB 7,2
Average critics 8,9
Average public 7,0

Cast: Sidney Flanigan, Talia Ryder, Théodore Pellerin
Director: Eliza Hittman
Writer: Eliza Hittman
Cinematographer: Hélène Louvart
Editor: Scott Cummings
Composer: Julia Holter

“Lane 1974” by S.J. Chiro

This movies raises many questions but gives few answers: could the collapse of this commune represent just an historical moment at a time (1974) when this movement is disappearing?

Cast: Katherine Moennig, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sara Coates
Director: S.J. Chiro
Writers: S.J. Chiro
Music by Jason Staczek
Cinematography by Sebastien Scandiuzzi
Film Editing by Celia Beasley

“Corpo Celeste” by Alice Rohrwacher (2011)

= First Feature =

A crumbling and dirty Italy with ordinary people and abandoned villages. And in the middle of all the misery, the church that indoctrinates, that brainwashes, that abuses, that promises a magic and miraculous world to people who live a cruel and ugly reality.
A biting attack against the church, its power, its decorum, its lies.
A promising debut!

Cast: Yle Vianello, Salvatore Cantalupo, Pasqualina Scuncia
Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Writer: Alice Rohrwacher
Cinematography by Hélène Louvart
Film Editing by Marco Spoletini

“Little Wing” by Selma Vilhunen (2016)

first feature

A 12 year-old girl who lives with her depressive self-centered single mother wants to know who her father is and finds out that he’s even more irresponsible than her mother.
What it means to grow up (and why would someone ever want to do that :))
Good direction and acting!

Cast: Linnea Skog, Paula Vesala, Lauri Maijala
Director: Selma Vilhunen
Writers: Selma Vilhunen
Music by Jori Sjöroos, Paula Vesala
Cinematography by Tuomo Hutri
Film Editing by Samu Heikkilä

“American Fable” (Anne Hamilton, USA 2016)

An unrealistic and insane use of guns

Cast: Peyton Kennedy, Richard Schiff, Kip Pardue, Zuleikha Robinson, Rusty Schwimmer
Director: Anne Hamilton
Writer: Anne Hamilton
Cinematographer: Wyatt Garfield
Editor: Amanda C. Griffin
Composer: Gingger Shankar

“Queen of Katwe” (Mira Nair, USA 2016)

Cast: Lupita Nyong’o, David Oyelowo, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Madina Nalwanga,
Director: Mira Nair
Writer: William Wheeler, (book by) Tim Crothers
Cinematographer: Sean Bobbitt
Editor: Barry Alexander Brown
Composer: Alex Heffes