Based on a stage play and set in the early 2000s this Australian movie on a gay couple trying to have a baby and literally “buying” a son off a girl from internet has some interesting issues, only some of which are explored. Steve (Graeme Squires) is a successful TV host and closeted while his partner Alex (Nicholas Gunn) is more relaxed but keeps quiet so as not to prejudice Steve’s career and good salary.
The pair end up building a sort of mansion by the sea and obviously have the moolah. Alex finds Nerine (Jessikah Baker),
an unemployed and lost girl who is pregnant and she agrees to give over the baby but later returns with a drug addict boyfriend who steals the kid back and blackmails the couple. So, a story with its ups and downs. The problem is that there is insufficient attention given to the effect of the kid on the relationship. At times Steve seems to have zero commitment to the relationship and also zero strength to veto Alex’s desire for a kid.
Then, various plot twists have major holes in them even given the period we are living in. Steve seems to be constantly harassed by potential blackmailers but does nothing about it and the whole episode with the druggie seems to be far too dramatic. Surely someone in a hotel would hear the violence and the baby screaming for days. 
Steve and Alex also seem bereft of any friends (or family) who are not shallow and unsupportive. And the dramatic music is just over the top! Having said all that, the leads do a pretty good job 
and the photography is good. Some of the dramatic scenes do have a convincing emotional charge. Unfortunately, however the falseness of some aspects detracts from the coverage of a serious topic.
♦+
who brought him up as a child in the 70’s in Mexico City. The film, attractively and dreamily shot in black and white focuses on a well-to-do household in which Cleo, a maid of indigenous origins helps the family look after 4 kids over the course of a year. In that year, the husband
abandons the family for another woman and his wife
seems to be in denial, Cleo gets pregnant and there are bouts of social unrest with the students in the country. We also experience a forest fire and an earthquake. Some of the scenes are so unreal that they could only happen in real life, not fiction.
The film is very much a feminist film pointing out how women so often have to get on with life and clear up the mess that men leave them with but although these are made clearly, the emphasis is much more on telling a personal tale
than exploring the merits of certain behavior. A lot is packed into the film even so and most notably we get to see what the life of a maid is like.
Although her part is much smaller we also see something of the evolution of Sofia, the abandoned wife, though this role is less well fleshed than is Cleo’s. The end of the film has a real beauty about it
and yet it also firmly indicates that life in its mundanity continues.
As I said, we may not always agree with the filters through which Cuaron chooses to tell this tale and feel that opportunities have been lost but there is no denying that it is an accomplished piece of film making, particularly in direction and cinematography – both under the control of Cuaron himself and in the totally authentic performance of Yalitza Aparicio
as Cleo.
seems to work. They send videos to each other at the end of each of their days so the other can know what was happening. But one day Jon gets a girlfriend
against the rules, Jonathan is jealous and resentful that his “brother” lied to him and from then on in the balance and trust are hard to restore. Jonathan ends up also having a relationship with the girl Elena (Suki Waterhouse)
and that exacerbates matters not to mention confusing the girl. It is a plot development that is left a bit hanging and in general the story requires a few leaps of faith but in the end thanks to the very sound performance by Ansel Elgort as the two “brothers”.
both at a loss for things to do in their Connecticut mansions
who get together to plan a crime. It doesn’t start that way as the two girls, played by Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor Joy
have been estranged for some years and need to get used to each other again.
But considering they have no other friends, this is not so hard. Cory Finley captures a certain disaffected milieu but the rest of the film and the actual crime itself
is rather tasteless and I was glad for it to be over.
There are signs of talent in the direction and there is a very dry humour here but I found it quite unappealing.
pretty badly and has a prostitute as a muse (Clemence Poesy). 
His brother Diego (Tony Shalhoub) tries to keep him out of trouble. Although the period is reconstructed well by director Stanley Tucci, the film resembles a theatrical play and may have been better in that format. Geoffrey Rush
plays another version of himself as the lead, but is not unbelievable
and Armie Hammer gives us another version of the naïve American in Europe.
All told then, it has some moments that reveal aspects of the creative process to us but is mercifully short as it really does not add much else. OK but underwhelming.
plays a home-schooled geek
who goes to sit a final exam at school and discovers that the place offers more fun than lessons with his overbearing mum and provides, moreover, the chance to meet girls.
So, he flunks the exam, ends up going to school for a term in the place of a dead student,
which is a running joke and turns out not as we expect and starts to experience a different facet of life. Mum is right behind of course
and actually coveted by the Principal as a possible love interest. What could have been a disaster is actually quite entertaining largely thanks to a slick pace and the comic skills of Doheny, Judy Greer as the mother
, Siobhan Williams as the love interest and a host of bit players. Credit then to director Kyle Rideout and writer Josh Epstein.
an ambitious climber in a New York finance house is deputed to go to a Swiss spa
to bring back the CEO who has checked in for a cure and is needed back in New York. When he arrives, Lockhart (Dane De Haan) discovers that this mountain castle is like going back in time and while it seems to be a typical spa, something weird is going on. He is told by resident Goth ethereal spirit Hannah (Mia Goth)
that no one ever leaves and after an accident
Lockhart finds himself in treatment
there too, under the care of Volmer (Jason Isaacs playing up the smarm).
With the help of the local driver and a guest who loves puzzles (Celia Imrie), he starts to pick his way through local myth and actual real medical practice of much dubiousness to find out what he has got himself into.
There are plenty of frights and ratcheted tension on the way and Bojan Bazelli’s photography captures the spirit of an institution that seems both hygienic and fundamentally ill.
The film goes on a bit long, has plot holes and some unnecessary information (Lockhart’s own traumas) but it keeps you glued to the screen and adds up to a positive watch despite the flaws. Convincingly scary in parts
and it will have you dreaming of eels.
and is shipped off by her aunt to a rural Christian centre where a brother and sister team, Reverend Rick and Dr Lydia, use Christianity to scare off impure thoughts and actions. The place and the therapy is quite frightening in its amateur nature. Desiree Akhavan makes a low-key film exploring Cameron’s growing awareness of who she is
and of the games and beliefs of others. She and at least some of her fellow inmates seem far saner than those running the place.
In a way the film is about finding buddies in adversity and the ending underlines this, rather than any sort of exploration of the merits or otherwise of such therapy. 
Critics have taken the director to task for this but her approach has also made for solid and accessible movie.
Jennifer Ehle shines as the mean Dr Lydia and Moretz
confirms early promise.
and decide to challenge themselves to a 24-hour relationship having sex every hour!
In between we get loads of talkies (a la Linklater) and thoughts memories and revelations on what the two women think about relationships, art and family. Some of it is very entertaining and some of it drags terribly. You also have to have some sympathy for the two characters.
Naima is a bit anal and passive resistant but can also have a lovely placid streak. Sergio (a long story about the name) is mercurial, dynamic, charming and often a pain in the arse. Shawkat and Miguel Arteta penned the screenplay which has its moments and some of the camerawork capturing fleeting close-up expressions is lovely. But overall the film is less than the some of its parts. Watchable for Shawkat and the formidable talent of Laia Costa.
cctv reports and TV or internet streaming. To find his daughter, David Kim (the effective John Cho)
resorts to her laptop and starts to track her moves prior to the disappearance. Sometimes there are red herrings, sometimes he gets valuable clues. Working with a local detective (Debra Messing),
we go on a racy ride to try and fins Margot (Michelle La)
before it is too late. And somewhere along the way, things don’t add up.
Both the format and the story work, even if the ending seems a little contrived.
I liked this film a lot but you wouldn’t want to see too many remakes! Directed by Aneesh Chaganty.
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