Something different! An Iranian horror story set in Teheran during the hard years of the Iraqi war,
which blends the tough social conditions (bombing raids on Teheran) with Middle Eastern folklore about a djinn or spirit that can possess a person. 
The nucleus of the story involves a mother and her daughter, alone in an apartment
as their husband and father has been posted away on military service. Apart from the damage to the building, strange things begin to appear or disappear, the daughter
comes down with an inexplicable illness and the mother who is stubbornly trying to hold it all together feels like she is going mad.
Despite the low budget and unusual setting, the film does present us with some real scares and it does challenge to think about how our environment and customs can play with our minds. Directed by an expat Irani, this is a breath of fresh air for the genre.
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it is about as unauthentic as it comes.
Typical CGI imaged Hollywood backdrops and all the characters are rich matrons with boring lives. 
There are some good messages tucked in here and there but the biggest treat is to see the parade of famous stars.
They do what they can, they are professional
but its not enough to save what is precious little book club and too much cliché. Fonda
is slick, Candice Bergen
perhaps the most interesting and Keaton is still the insecure klutz.
See it if you have nothing better to do.
The story is that of a white family, somewhat brought down in life to running a cotton field with Laura the main voice in her family, a late-wed pianist who is forced to become a practical mother, miles from running water or electricity. Carey Mulligan does her best work ever here.
Husband Henry (Jason Clarke) is a bit limited,
at times with a good heart, at times scared of disobeying social mores and Pappy (Jonathan Banks) is your worst kind of racist.
How Laura puts up with this is incredible. Henry’s brother Jamie (Garrett Hedlund) goes off to war as a fighter pilot and is a bit gutless too.
, Ronsel (Jason Mitchell), the oldest son who goes to Europe in a tank company. Plus various other children. There are other neighbours too but their storylines are not developed much in this sprawling novel-like movie.
who both shocked by their war experiences strike up a friendship which is frowned upon in this town and eventually challenged by some of the more racist locals.
The message of the film is about how reaching out to others who understand allows us to overcome this racism and these two boys as also in the case of Florence and Laura shows that we can get along in these situations. Sadly, bigoted white men often get in the way. Director Dee Rees is making a comment about the US today as much as portraying its despicable past.
and consists of three parts: receiving the news, a flashback to life on the front and the grief period.
and the young soldiers fantasizing about life). Maoz has been criticized heavily for this part but he does suggest that the army are doing a spot of games playing there. From the black humour
we return to the family’s loss and Maoz extracts excellent performances from Lior Ashkenazy
and Sarah Adler
as the bereaved parents. His camerawork is especially notable and adds texture to his film. It might be a little less than his superb Lebanon, but this is a welcome addition to the work on grief and on the state of Israel today.
to celebrate. He is good looking
and has repressed his gay instincts which are starting to appear. His family is part of a religious group and that is really the whole point of the film; how to be your authentic self and yet also live within the restrictions of the church.
So, we get a bit of everything but mostly the contradictions of beautiful young bodies on show
and good food with the secrets they all bring with them.
There are the extremists who disapprove of the flesh
, the frustrated women in relationships, the gays who are repressed or not accepted,
the race issue, the self-harmer, the fact that alcohol has to be hidden
and the students attending a bible university that does not teach evolution. They mostly seem like nice people stuck in a straitjacket
that Cone would suggest is no longer relevant or humane today. Elizabeth Ludlow
plays the mother in perhaps the most interesting part along with Nina Ganet as her daughter. Cole Doman
in the lead is a shining centre who is heading for darker more interesting times. I liked the handling of all the stories and the editing, which makes the film very watchable and credible.
and again the acting and technical features outshine the story and direction by Miguel Angel Rocca. Jorge Marrale gives another excellent performance as the bereaved father, Mercedes Moran
is her usual competent self as the mother and Matias Mayer and Nicolas Francella
are among the supporting cast who also perform well. 
Music by Olegario Diaz helps give substance to this low budget movie. What can you say? Good enough but nothing very original or striking enough to really remember or rave about except perhaps Marrale.
At least in his personal life. He still churns out bright paintings but tastes have changed and his art gallery owner, Arturo Silva (Guillermo Francella) 
can’t sell any of them. On the point of being evicted and knocked down in the street,
Nervi’s luck changes thanks to a ploy he and Silva dream up and suddenly his stocks change and he gets international recognition with the help of Dudu (Andrea Frigerio), a gallery curator in quite a different class. 
But all is threatened when a recent acquaintance of Renzo’s puts two and two together. 
Gaston Duprat (directing) and his brother Andres (screenplay) concoct an entertaining and well-produced film which doesn’t give you any belly laughs but rather a wry look at the art world 
and some typical Argentine reactions to dealing with it
and with adversity in general, all the while keeping up appearances. Francella and Brandoni shine in the lead roles.
A lack of any real creativity prevents a higher score.
Here we are in Corrigan, a fictional West Australian town and a young woman has gone missing. The blame falls on a part-Aboriginal kid who wanted to be her boyfriend. His name is Jasper and he goes into hiding seeking the help of Charlie (Levy Millar), a bookish 13 year-old. 
Charlie becomes involved in the case way out of his depth and he starts to understand that not everyone wants to see the same truth. There is a rich cast here. Toni Collette, excellent as his frustrated mother,
Hugo Weaving as a sort of washed up hermit and war veteran
who gets the blame for everything, Jasper, Jeffrey, the Chinese classmate who is funny and a wizz at cricket,
Eliza, the missing girl’s sister who knows far more than she should and is competently played by Angourie Rice.
So, small town secrets, discrimination typical of the time, accompany the mystery to flesh out the movie. Which is just as well since the plot doesn’t hold up to too much scrutiny in places. Rachel Perkins recreates the era and the location very well and the film grows on you from a bit of a shaky start. 
Miller takes the lead well enough despite a tendency to open his eyes wide
everytime something new occurs. He has since gone on to A Wrinkle in Time among other films.
and to the social media and addicted to THIS need for connection as a source of approval. Kayla (excellent Elsie Fisher)
is an ungainly and pimply adolescent who may grow into a swan or maybe not. Living with her equally awkward solo father (Josh Hamilton) 
she is trying to make her way in the tough world of school, constantly worried about doing and saying the right thing. 
Many of her classmates are the same but most have learn strategies of coolness to survive amongst those who seem to come out of a fashion magazine or a top website and are what we now call “influencers”. It’s a minefield and Burnham shows us a few days in Kayla’s life, pool parties,
graduation, an awkward first encounter with a boy, another with a very different type of boy, etc.
At the same time Kayla is trying to validate herself uploading self-help videos to Youtube,
giving herself and others advice she can’t seem to implement herself. It is sadly embarrassing at times: kids trying to shed their childhood as quickly as possible and parents stranded on the sidelines not knowing if to intervene. The film has lots of meaningful moments and comes across as much more authentic than most films on the same age group.
is Muslim and plans to visit his brother in La Paz and then head off to Mecca to do the hajj. Whether he gets there or not is doubtful as Khalil is on dialysis. The two have different adventures on the way
and the driver Sebastian becomes involved in the Muslim culture and learns that people who are very different to him can have things to teach. 
So, metaphorically this is a journey for Sebastian, to open up his heart and stop being so closed and judgmental.
The work of Rodrigo de la Serna
to make this transformation in Sebastian is notable and shows why he is one of Argentina’s best actors. For him alone, the film is worth it but much of it seems filled with beautiful scenes but little content.
passionfilm 