Peppermint Frappe (1967) | Directed by Carlos Saura

 4.5/5

Carlos Saura’s Peppermint Frappe is another incisive and biting interrogation of masculinity. You can easily see the influence Vertigo had on the film (especially in the way references are woven throughout its fabric), but it’s refreshing to see Saura explore the ways that this impulse in men to shape and control the women in their lives is so incredibly destructive, toxic, and perverse. There’s also an exploration of privilege in Spanish society under Franco, as well as the entitlement wealthy men feel toward women’s bodies, luxuries, and indeed, anything they want. There are different levels to this privilege, so while our nominal protagonist might have power in one setting, the husband of the woman he loves wields much more power in others. The use of color throughout is striking, with gorgeous bursts of green and red in tight compositions that stick with you long after the film has ended. Saura also uses long sequence shots that encircle the characters, placing us in the viewpoint of the menacing, roving, and hungry eyes of the film’s men. There’s only one way this film could end, and Saura keeps ratcheting up the tension until we reach its inevitable, gruesome conclusion.

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Enola Holmes (2020) | Directed by Harry Bradbeer

 2/5

Harry Bradbeer’s Enola Holmes is an uneven mess of a film. Millie Bobby Brown shows the limits of her range as a performer – she’s a bit too earnest and stilted and the dialect never fully lands. Henry Cavill’s Sherlock Holmes is charming, but the rest of the cast are merely caricatured villains or antagonists for Enola to square off against. As soon as the plot kicks into gear and “the game is afoot,” it can be a thoroughly delightful and pleasantly entertaining diversion. But whenever it dips into its teenage romance subplot, the film turns tedious and plodding, finding itself bogged down by a milquetoast romantic interest and no chemistry between the performers. However, worse than this are the narrative digressions that take us away from the central mystery (or really, mysteries) of the film, such as the nearly twenty minutes spent at a boarding school that is completely incidental to the rest of the film. And when the resolution to one of the film’s major mysteries (what happened to Enola’s mother?) is handled so haphazardly, the film winds up ending on a completely unsatisfying note.

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The Treatment (2019) | Directed by Álvaro Carmona

 4.5/5

Álvaro Carmona’s The Treatment is an outstanding social satire about vanity, narcissism, and our callous indifference to human life. The performances are all pitch perfect – there isn’t a false note in the cast. The film is hilarious, the comic timing is so precise – a ruthless commentary about the things society has come to value over life and a basic care and concern for others. It’s an absolute treat to watch, even as it makes us squirm with recognition.

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Plastic Killer (2022) | Directed by José Pozo

 3/5

José Pozo’s Plastic Killer is a clever and witty little film that uses horror and thriller tropes to explore the dangers of plastic on society – as well as the extremes that so many of us take in our activism and pursuit of justice. The performances are all delightful – big and over-the-top – but they work in the context of this satire. There’s so much going on narratively within such a short runtime that the film’s message gets a bit muddled, but the filmmaking itself is strong and compelling.

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Almost Home (2022) | Directed by Nils Keller

 3.5/5

Nils Keller’s Almost Home is a beautifully produced sci-fi short with impressive thought and attention put into the world-building, never overwhelming the film but always there in the background. As a medically vulnerable person in this current pandemic, I appreciate that the film’s central dilemma is taken so seriously and with such nuance and honesty – in the midst of a new pandemic, should a medically vulnerable person risk their life or go back into isolation? This is a film that illustrates the deep heartbreak and sadness of continued isolation, of watching friends and family go on without you. It shows the real worry about how to keep safe if you don’t isolate. These are the real emotions and concerns that those of us with disabilities and medical vulnerabilities must continue navigate on a daily basis now that so many in our lives have decided that the pandemic is over. And it is so refreshing to see a film take these emotions and concerns seriously. The fight in the film’s third act – complete with zero gravity pushing and pulling between mother and son – seems overwrought and out-of-place in a film that is otherwise so grounded in the characters’ emotional experiences. However, this is still a wonderful and emotionally rich film that, at the very least, held deep resonances for me and left me feeling seen and known and heard in this time when disability and medical vulnerability are becoming more and more ignored and made invisible in society.

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The Hunt (1966) | Directed by Carlos Saura

 4/5

Content Warning: The film contains several extended scenes of animal cruelty.

Carlos Saura’s The Hunt is a brutal portrait of toxic masculinity and class privilege. Existing as stand-ins for the corruption and decadence at the heart of fascist Spain, it would be all too easy to make each of the four men in this hunting party carbon copies of each other, flattening them each into caricature. It’s impressive seeing the ways that Saura differentiates each of them, giving them all fully developed and richly drawn characters. The use of voiceover throughout is exceptional – by handing the voiceover off between the four primary characters, it helps us drill deeper into their petty grievances, their hopes and fears, their insecurities. And all of this ramps up the always escalating tension that runs throughout the film. The rabbit hunt is a brutal and a difficult scene, but the repetition of images and quick editing rhythms conveys a grotesquerie and a decadence, a stomach-churning disregard for life that had taken hold among the elite within Franco’s Spain. Whether the men are drinking, shooting for sport, looking through their magazines at pinup models, or leering at underage girls, we’re constantly presented with their avarice and greed. The gut-wrenching finale is explosive – the logical outcome of this unchecked sense of entitlement and arrogance. It may be a brutal film, but it’s incredibly honest.

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Nakam (2022) | Directed by Andreas Kessler

 4/5

Andreas Kessler’s Nakam is a gorgeously shot and beautifully performed short film that grips our attention from the very first frame. In exploring the difficult choices faced by Jewish resistance fighters during World War II, the film’s central dilemma is absolutely gut-wrenching. The father and son dynamic at the heart of the film is heartbreaking and painful, and while I would have like to see it developed more (especially in contrast to the boy’s relationship to other resistance fighter), it remains satisfying within the context of this short film.

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BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (2022) | Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu

 5/5

Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is a magnificent, moving film about what it’s like to exist in liminal spaces – being from one country but living in another, striving to be an artist but retain your journalistic integrity, holding onto your grief while trying to let it go, remaining on threshold of life and death… The use of surrealism as a stylistic choice allows the film to bring this feeling of dislocation to life in a powerful, captivating way as it interrogates the nature of truth, myth, and the stories we tell ourselves and others. This is a film that is keenly aware of the class privilege that allows its main character to traverse borders freely, yet because of his country of origin it also understands the prejudice and racism he faces regularly when coming into the United States. This is undoubtedly Iñárritu’s most accomplished film – and certainly his most personal – and he seems willing to be honest and vulnerable in a way that he hasn’t allowed himself to be in other works, revealing fears and truths that go deeper the surface-level machismo of his previous efforts.

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Sierra (2022) | Directed by Sander Joon

 3.5/5

Sander Joon’s Sierra is a completely wild and unhinged work of animation about a son trying to connect to his controlling and manipulative father. The animation is playful, surreal, and chaotic – yet it’s always fun and engaging. There’s something so sad and truthful about the ways the son remakes and transforms himself to please his father but is unable to change back once he has fully become what his father has always wanted him to be. And it’s something of a small cinematic miracle that, in spite of how dark and tragic the film’s trajectory, it still manages to end on a somewhat hopeful note.

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Night Ride (2020) | Directed by Eirik Tveiten

 3.5/5

Eirik Tveiten’s Night Ride is such a charming short film, one with a lovely sense of discovery as the main character fumbles her way through her attempt to drive the tram she has accidentally stolen. The film uses the confines of the tram exceptionally well – isolating our main character from her unintended passengers and keeping the incident of harassment she tries to ignore just over her shoulder. It’s so moving to see a film that encourages active involvement when harassment occurs, and the character’s approach to challenging fragile and toxic masculinity is absolutely delightful.