Independent Cinema for Everyone

Balanced somewhere between a “gothic love story” and horror, according to its director, Saltburn is a film with serious pedigree. Loosely based on the family featured in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, this later-generation story begins in 2006, and owes as much to cinematic references as Waugh’s examination of Britain’s class structure: think Kubrick’s chancing hero Barry Lyndon meets The Talented Mr Ripley. Director Emerald Fennell uses her own experiences to depict life at an Oxford college. A scholarship boy, Oliver Quick (played by Barry Keoghan), arrives at the university, very much a fish out of water. His first introduction to the ... Continue Reading

A project of time and reflection, The Nettle Dress records a seven-year mission by textile artist, Allan Brown, to make a garment entirely from wild nettles. Filmed by Dylan Howitt, Allan explains the painstaking process of collecting, threading and weaving nettles into fabric, while recounting his first encounter with the prickly plant. He remembers falling into a bush of nettles as a kid, and the sensation of being stung left an impression that ran deeper than the initial burn. The film follows Allan into his local woods as the artist seeks more materials to work with. Nettles, of course, are everywhere. “They ... Continue Reading

Trying to pin down the chaotic, surrealist world of Salvador Dali, Daliland is a biopic that doesn’t lack ambition. Directed by Mary Harron and scripted by John Walsh, this film explores the last decade of the artist’s life.  We enter Daliland from the perspective of gallery assistant, James (played by Christopher Briney). It is New York,1974, and his boss has asked him to deliver a suitcase stuffed with money to the St. Regent Hotel. This money is for Gala, Dali’s wife. A fearsome, intimidating presence, and in charge of ... Continue Reading

A pitch-perfect satire, celebrating the proudly insular world of musical theatre, mockumentary Theater Camp chronicles life at a kids’ performing arts retreat. The film starts at the camp’s final performance of the season, and gives us the drama with an early narrative twist. As we follow camp founder Joan Rubinsky (Amy Sedaris), working the audience for donations, she suddenly becomes not the lead, but the background. Sitting down to enjoy a particularly jazzy, strobe-lighted performance, Joan is hospitalised by a seizure, which leaves her in a coma. Her son Troy (Jimmy Tatro) is given the reins for the next ... Continue Reading

As an icon among dolls, Barbie’s rise to the top has met with little resistance. As an icon of cinema, her box office numbers are good, but she has lacked artistic cache. With Ladybird and Little Women director Greta Gerwig signed on to produce an entirely new film, much of the anticipation was centred on how Gerwig would approach the project. Camp, cool or revisionist? While there’s been plenty of reworked classics, if you’re expecting a live-action version of Barbie as Rapunzel or even the classic ... Continue Reading

A glorious, whimsical love letter, the French film Amélie sets its heart on convincing the cynics among us that romance – real, honest-to-goodness romance – is still very much alive in the 21st century.  Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Amélie is introduced to us in montage. She lives an isolated childhood with her unhappy parents, and when she leaves home, she buries herself in a waitressing job in a Parisian cafe. But Amélie (a star-making role for Audrey Tautou) is filled with curiosity: she notices everything around her. She makes a chance discovery at her flat, when she ... Continue Reading